


Go生(SKZ-fanfic)

by blankz_filler



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - Dark, Dark, F/M, Fanfiction, Fantasy, Futuristic, Gen, Growing Up, M/M, Meaning of Life, Post-War, Supernatural Elements, Thriller, Trauma, learning to live
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:28:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25758844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blankz_filler/pseuds/blankz_filler
Summary: Sick of the current life? Being constantly tied down by the laws that're full of loopholes, feeling disgusted by the corrupted governing system, and always conforming to the social norm. Welcome to a world that's without all of that. Except that, instead of it being a better place, it's a even much more sickening world.Always be careful of what you wish for...Credits:Images from Google (multiple primary sources), edited by blankz_filler; Lyrics English translation by multiple sources; Albums and songs by SKZ.Book cover only available @ https://www.wattpad.com/story/234324278-go%E7%94%9F-skz-fanfic
Relationships: Bang Chan/Everyone, Han Jisung | Han & Everyone, Hwang Hyunjin/Everyone, Kim Seungmin/Everyone, Lee Felix (Stray Kids)/Everyone, Lee Minho | Lee Know/Everyone, Seo Changbin/Everyone, Yang Jeongin | I.N/Everyone
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	1. Go生

**Author's Note:**

> *This fanfic might be really dark for certain people, so read at your own risks. I'm not going to include the long list of tags as I've already put in this warning note*
> 
> All events and characters in this fanfic are completely fictional. So, please DO NOT cross reference/correlate any events or characters to the real life events/people.

Listening to <Go Live> by SKZ, Bang Chan rocked his head to the rhythm that were drumming from his headphones.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Three gunshots from the street can be heard in his room.

"Ahh! Help, Please! Anyone!" A delicate voice, it sounded like a young lady, but it could be of a child.

"Sob, pl-please...anyone..."

The sound of pleading got softer as helplessness takes over desperation. Clearly, the plead was unanswered.

"Bang!" The last shot echoed throughout the town, long enough to ring in the ears of everyone who were living nearby.

Silence was all that left after the echo died down. No sirens, no screams of shock, nothing but silence after all the shootings in the streets.

He walked to the window that's facing the streets and looked down at the group of three mobsters. He lived on the 10th floor of the apartment that allowed him to have a full wide view of the town.

"Get it done now!" The rushing voice can be heard faintly, it came from the taller but slender guy, who's wearing a full length coat with a black hat covering half of his face. The other two shorter guys followed his order. They dragged the corpse off the street. The taller one must be in the higher rank as he just stood at the side, watching them to do the work while holding a black handkerchief up to his nose, giving the 4D effect of the stinky street they're in at the moment.

One of the shorter guys dropped the legs of the corpse to the ground to open the lid of the big metallic dumpster that's leaning on the wall of the nearby narrow alley. He went back to pick up the legs and together, they swung the corpse in a full throw into the dumpster. They shut the lid with a loud "clang" and the trio disappeared from the view of the street in no time after disposing all the corpses.

"Tap, tap, tap, sshaaa-"

The rain came at the right time, after all the cruel killings, washing away the bright red blood that painted the filthy black streets. As the red stripes blurred with the downpour, Bang Chan walked back to his working station as if it's just another ordinary day.

"Tap, tap, tap..."

**D-3 Crimson Red, K10**

A line in bold was shown on his screen as he typed on the keyboard.

"Sigh, three days. Just three more, Chan. Until then, stay low."

He looked at the light blonde curls, with piercings on the brows, ears and bottom lip, tattoos that covered his neck, a clear image of a rebellious kid. The pale young boy was staring back at him from the mirror that's sitting right in front of him. An old photo with its colours faded that's sitting on the edge of the mirror got his attention. He winced at the sight of it, recalling memories that he wished to forget.

15 years ago...

A cute and bubbly little boy, a little chubby, with fair skin, and blonde curly hair. He was adored and loved by his family and friends. They used to play with him a lot, told him countless of fairy tales just to get a smile from him. Because, when he smiles, dimples deepened on his face, making him looked even more adorable, like an angel that had fallen to Earth.

"Channie~"

A beautiful lady with long wavy blonde hair sang to the boy in high pitch, getting the boy's attention.

"Mummy!"

The boy runs to his mother and leaps straight into her embrace.

"Don't run around the dock, told you it's dangerous. I love you, my baby."

His mother said to him while holding the boy off the ground.

"I love you more, hehe."

The boy was being cheeky but lovable.

Both of them indulged in the warm hug, hoping the time will be frozen forever right now, before total despair reached them.

"Mum?"

"Hm? What's it hon?

"Will daddy be home for my birthday?"

The boy raised his head from the hug to look at his mother, asking cautiously. Although being at a young age, Bang Chan read emotions too well. He knew his mother was uneasy at the mention of his father, but he still wanted to know, at least, had some hope that his father is still out there, alive...

The lady put down the boy in her arms and crouched down to his eye level.

"Yes. Daddy will be back. He, he promised."

His mother smiled at him before embracing the little boy again, resting her head on the little boy's shoulder.

What the lady didn't know was that the little boy had noticed the slight trembling in her voice, her averted gaze from their eye contact at the word of "promise".

"He'll be back, Channie. Daddy promised us. He promised."

It sounded more like she was talking to herself rather than talking to the boy. He felt the hug got tightened to the point that he was unable to breathe comfortably but he did not complain. He returned the hug instead, enveloping his mother in his small arms as if he's the only one his mother can rely on.

6 months passed...

"Madam, you need to go, now."

A rather old man rushed the lady urgently to board the last ship.

"Bu-but. What about him? I need to be here when he returns -"

"Madam! Please, think about Channie. He's still young. He needs you more than that grown up man. At least, don't leave him alone. You know better than anyone else the feeling of loneliness and desperation. Don't put your baby boy through that situation again. He has missed his father, be by his side as a mother."

The elder persuaded the lady with a firm tone and unwavering gaze.

"I-I- sob. You're right. Channie needs me."

The lady had finally given up on staying. The elder heaved a sigh of relief.

She grabbed the arm of the man suddenly.

"Please, please tell him where we are if, no, when he returns."

Looking at her desperate gaze, the elder lightly tapped on the arm grabbing him.

"I will, don't worry. Now leave!"

The lady stepped on the gangway while holding little Chan's hand in hers.

"Take care, Ben."

They waved each other good luck and left in different directions.

"Mummy, what about grandpa Benjamin? He's not coming with us?"

"No, Channie, no. Just you and mummy. We'll will be back after the holiday to meet daddy, kay?"

The lady tried to smile but failed miserably. She ended up embracing the boy without further explanations.

The boy hugged her back. He can hear her wailing silently on his shoulder but all he can do was holding her silently. He was facing the dock where he last saw grandpa Benjamin. There was a sudden big explosion and the land was engulfed in fire. The deafening screams of pain and fear were accompanied by the thundering of continuous explosions. But on the ship, they just looked on to the burning land in silence, so quiet, so calm, just like the tamed waves the ship was sailing on. No one said anything, but everyone shared the same sorrow their hearts.

The gaze of the passengers never left the land until the sight of the nightmare faded away along with the thickening fogs. They returned to the shelter one by one until it was only Chan and his mother left on the deck, still hugging each other.

But deep down, everyone knew what happened. They had no more home to return to. This was an eternal goodbye.

Bang Chan did not let a tear fall that day. He just kept on looking to the direction of his lost home. There was no hint of living in his once bright and lively eyes.

"Mum, let's head in. It's getting cold."

He was too calm, too mature, too reliable for a kid at his age. His mother looked at him in confusion at first, then sadness, then a hint of guilt and shame. She wiped off her tears and stood up.

"Let's go, Channie."

She held the boy's little hand and walked into the shelter as if they're going to a better place.

What she didn't realized was that day the little boy had grown at a tremendous speed. He had made a resolution, a promise, a mission. He knew he had to be the big guy and took up the role of his father to be there for his mother. He will do whatever he can to protect his only family left.

Back to present...

He lightly brushed the old photo with his fingers. The three people in the photo look so happy, at least he remembered it that way. Now, the image was blurred and worn off to the point that the faces are no longer clear. He suddenly pulled away from the photo and back to his work, but he only managed to stare at the screen, mind blank, as if the photo has sucked the life out of him.

One thing flashes in his mind:

I can't remember.

He's grateful for not being able to remember much details from the nightmare but also feeling guilty as hell as he can't remember the faces of his family that he values so much at the same time. The world he lives alone right now is just a mess. So monotonous that everything looks so dead to him, everything in black and white. If it's not for his mother, he would have chosen death over this hellish life.

"Live. Please, Channie. You have to continue what your father couldn't. Promise me."

He shook his head at the sudden recall of his mother's words.

Go live

"Knock! Knock!"

He flipped his head to the door, being dragged out from his memories.

"Sir, your car is ready."

"I'll be there in five."

"Yes sir."

Footsteps faded outside of the door. He looked back to his screen which was filled with dates and event, like an e diary.

"Soon, I will put everything back to their original place and make things right again. I will be able to do it right, mum?"  
He frowned as he smiles, showing his soften side, but only very briefly.

He flips down the screen and puts his laptop in a backpack that is already filled with his other personal belongings. He swings the bag over his shoulder before leaving the room.

"Click"

The door closed as the empty room was enclosed by darkness. The mirror at the working station was full of irregular stains but it's still doing its job well, reflecting the sorry state of the room as usual with the dim light that's seeping through the slit of the curtain, just that, now the old photo was missing.

From the street below the apartment, the cars engines can be heard for a few minutes before it faded to the original silence of the street.

He left the filthy place at last. It will be the start of a new journey in a brand new filthy place.

Another eternal goodbye.

Go生 ENDS...

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A/N: What I can guarantee is that this fanfic will be a really long story and I hope that I can continue writing it until the end. What I can't guarantee is the regular update.

There, welcome to board the ship, but feel free to disembark if it seems to be taking forever to reach the end of the journey for you.

Lastly, thank you for reading the first chapter. It is intentional to mention the title of the song in the beginning. You can look up the songs in each chapter, it will enhance your reading experience with the song playing in the background. I write while listening to their albums too. 

See you in next chapter. Stay tuned.


	2. 19

***WARNING! Unpleasant content***

Listening to <19> by SKZ brings back those old sayings.

An age when you're turning to be a young adult. The time you'll start looking back at the past 19 years, looking at what you've learned, what you've tried, what you've achieved. The time to actually start planning the next 20 years with a reliable career that will actually bring food to the dining table.

Have you ever feel like your dream will never be realised no matter how hard you try. They will just stay as a dream.

Adults used to tell us, "Stop clinging so hard at your dream. One day, you gonna grow up, you'll know that they're fruitless. Something to keep you occupied when you're younger, something you can reminiscence when you're older. But it's nothing more than an empty dream."

But what we want to, what we imagine as, what we work for, it's the dream we've been chasing since young. It might turn out just like those people told us, an empty dream. But we'll never know how it will turn out until we've lived to the end of our lives. It could be our failure, our dissatisfaction, our devastation. But, we'll rather have all that than having the regret for not even trying, that'll hunt us even in our afterlife.

And it used to be hard, but now, it's even worse. Now, even having a normal career sounds crazily nonsense to hear. Chasing dreams? Pfft, might as well try to survive in this ugly city first, where robbery, rape, assaults, and meaningless killings are all norms in everyday life. People trying to live by stepping over others dead bodies. If you are killed when having your lunch, then be grateful that you can at least leave this filthy world, not with an empty stomach. If you're shot in the head, be grateful that you're lucky to die without sufferings that'll make you beg for death. If you died of terminal illness or of old age, be grateful to die with a natural cause, not by intended murder/killings.

13 years ago, the governing institution falls. Political system that we're so used to, laws and rules that we've been abiding in our lives, money that has been our new god for decades, all of it crumbles to ashes along with the world war. Friends and family we love, people that we know, and strangers that we don't know, all don't matter now. Kind people turn evil, not a new thing. Close people turn their backs on us, it's acceptable. Comrades turn to betrayers, who to blame? This is the aftermath of the war that has left the world in shambles without any chance of restoring back to the peaceful time right before the war or even regaining a little bit of humanity. When the first explosion was heard as the sign of the start of the notorious war; humanity, civilisation, and rationality, all of them shatter into pieces together with the hope of mankind.

The city is lawless now. The stronger leads the weaker. The rich abuses the poor. The intellects manipulate the public. No, this is happening in any place of the world right now. Wait it might used to be that way in the past but in a more subtle way. Now, crimes happen publicly without the fear of legal consequences. Every single person is just hoping to die without any sufferings. As suicides become a norm too, a place is designated in every city for the convenience of suiciding without the need of disposing of the bodies, since there's no more enforcers on duty.

The place, a.k.a "The Drop" suit its purpose, where people just choose any method they'd like to die, there's this roofed structure over a deep hole as wide as an olympic-sized pool that's as deep as no one ever get to see the base of it. There are diving planks along the edge of the hole, the person who wish to suicide just need to stand on the plank to execute their plans. Their bodies will naturally drop into the hole. No one know what's underneath it, but no matter how many people suicided, the hole is never filled, as if, there's something down there, keeping the bodies decomposed.

In the center of the busiest city, stands the most extravagant, most popular, and most stylish club. The building has 5 floors, the facade of the building is designed with thick golden metallic stripes, only granting entrance to the top class of elites.

They say if you get a chance to enter, you can get almost anything you desire: resources, connections, information; provided that you are able to pay the price. In short, it's a contemporary trading organisation. Classy food, elegant environment, but most importantly, it's the mesmerising entertainment. Songs that have long forgotten, dances that have long vanished, music that have long extinct, all of them can be experienced in the club. It's the best pleasure you can get at present.

In the waiting room of the club.

"Hyunjin yah~"

"Hm~"

"Today, will be a great day in history for us!"

Woojin is adjusting his buttons in front of a mirror, wearing a white long sleeve shirt, topped with a dark grey swallow tail vest.

"Do you think I will able to do it, Woojin hyung?"

The blonde hair teenager is pacing the room nervously.

"Of course, what nonsense are you asking now? Who else can dance as best as you huh?"

"My twin?"

"You mean Yeji? Oh, come on, you guys have different styles of dancing. Stop comparing to each other. Both of you are great. Most importantly, this is your dream. You do it for yourself, you hear me, Hyunijn?"

"Okay-"

"Bang!"

The door to the waiting room swings wide open and another man shows up.

"Guys, guys, guess what?"

"You've finally breaks the door?"

Woojin rolls his eyes while continuing fixing his clothes, clearly has no interest in whatever the guy has found.

"Pfft"

"Hyunjin! It's not funny!"

"Oh-uh, sorry, Minnie. What did you find?"

"Hmph, I will not tell you~"

Seungmin crosses his arm and walks to one of the makeup table. He starts styling his hair while keeping an eye on the guy in the smart outfit who has just teased him.

"Why are you keep on fixing your clothes when there's nothing to fix? And you're not a performer either. Got a date?"

Seungmin trying to tease him with one of his eyebrows raised.

"Seungmin, can you please treat the door gentler?"

"What? It's still attached! Right, Jinnie?"

"Stop pestering Hyunjin. He needs to prepare for his performance. Hyunjin, go find Yeji and tells her to see me."

"Okay."

The blonde leaves the room. Leaving the two alone in the room.

"Seungmin"

The elder walks to the makeup table and his tone turns dead serious.

"Gulp, yeah, what?"

"Today is important. The powerful, the weathiest, the most manipulative people, all of them will be in one room today, watching all of you guys' performance. Be careful, those are monsters who can kill in a flash without batting an eyelid."

"I-I know. You don't have to remind me of this awful day do ya."

"Sigh, I'm not worry about you-"

"Gasp, then, it's Jinnie. Right? But I think he'll do a great job. He has been practising every day just for today!"

"Yes, I hope so. But it's his first time performing. And unfortunately, it has to be today for his debut, with an audience of monsters. One mistake, and we might lose him."

Both of their heads drop while they stare at the floor.

"If only that bastard did not break Yeji's arm, Jinnie wouldn't have to-"

"Shush! Have you lost your mind? That's the son of Master Song. Calling him names could've gotten you killed."

"Another dictator family, full of killers. Bastards."

Seungmin complains again, this time, in a much lower voice that's close to a whisper.

"Hyung, do you think it's on purpose? Last time when that scoundrel saw Jinnie in our club, that son of bastard know exactly what's the scoundrel was thinkin'. Did they plan to-"

"Seungmin, you need to mark your words to keep your head attached."

Woojin cuts him off swiftly.

"But hyung, this is serious if that's what it is! That scoun- I mean that rascal's gonna be here tonight!"

Woojin rolls his eyes at Seungmin's choice of words. Then his tone is back to seriousness.

"Sigh, Seungmin, I'll trust you to take care of Hyunjin. Can you do that?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure. Can you promise me you'll be back early? I'm not used to performing without you nearby either."

"I'll try. I promise."

"You know how those monsters are when they're in this area, their inner demons tend to go out of control. But why do you guys still need to meet that bastard?"

"The son, he's not satisfied with just an apology."

"What does he want then? It's not even our fault to begin with when he tripped over a stone because he can't keep his eyes on the road when walking! Saying cuz it's Yeji's fault to flirt with him? What a load of bullshits!"

"It's not up to us to say. Have you forgotten that we have no more laws? They are the law now. Be good, behave. Don't let anything happen to Hyunjin and yourself. I'll be back soon. Until then, please stay alive, you'll have a higher chance at that if you keep your mouth shut."

This time it's Seungmin's turn to roll his eyes at Woojin's sarcastic remarks.

"Wait, what'll happen to Yeji then?"

Silence fills the room with both of them staring at each other.

Woojin tries to say something when there is knocking on the door.

"Woojin hyung, Yeji is here."

Seungmin tries to enquire again but Woojin shakes his head as a sign of ending their earlier conversation. They both know that Hyunjin is a faint-hearted kid. He'll definitely be too heartbroken to perform tonight if he knows where his sister will be heading. All three of them know what's coming tonight, but they have decided to hide the truth from the innocent Hyunjin, who knows nothing about the actual incident of Yeji's broken arm. They had only told him that she had broken it when she slipped during a dance practice. And Hyunjin only knows that his sister will be meeting with a high-rank sponsor along with Woojin tonight, which is why he'll be taking over his sister's place to perform. All they hope for is keeping everyone alive as long as they can. And Hyunjin is someone they want to keep him sheltered from this side of the cruel world.

"Sure, come in."

The door opens and the twins greet them with a bright smile while the other two force a sad smile on their faces. Mixed feelings filled the air.

"Yeji, let's go now. We don't wanna be late."

"Yes, Woojin hyung."

"Have you teach Hyunjin everything that he needs to know for tonight?"

"Yes, I did. And I'm sure he will do a great job. I can leave in peace, now."

"What do you mean sis? What's with the leave in peace?"

"So that I don't have to leave while worrying you all night, in fear that you'll mess up and taint my reputation. Got it, dumbass? You better perform well, you hear me?"

She pulls Hyunjin into a hug, which lasted longer than usual.

"Yeji? Hey, is there something that I don't know?"

She pulls herself back, holding in the tears.

"N-no. Oh my god! What's going on with me?"

Woojin pats her back to soothe her, while giving her a slight nod, urging her to go on.

"Hyunjin yah, my baby bro finally going to stand on the stage in the limelight tonight. I'm so happy for you. Make our family proud. See you."

Seungmin goes over and hugs Yeji too.

"Take care and good luck, Yeji."

"Yeah, promise me you'll take care of him tonight."

"I promise."

Seungmin is not sure if he can, but he has no other answer other than that one for Yeji.

"Let's go."

"Coming. All the best, guys!"

The duo leave the room.

Hyunjin walks closer to Seungmin while keeping his gaze at the door.

"Minne, why do I feel like I've already missed my sis?"

Oh god, Seungmin think. Now, how can they explain to him when he finds out the truth on tomorrow? He winces at Hyunjin's question while trying to cheer him up.

"Come on you baby boy. We have lots to prepare. You're over 19 now! Can't have your sister with you all the time you know?"

Seungmin tries to sound as cheerful as possible. He then drags Hyunjin to the makeup table.

"Now, let me get you patched up for the show. Are you ready for it, Jinnie?"

"Yeah. You're right. I'm ready for it."

The smiles on their face, each for a different reason; one is due to excitement while the other is due to sympathy.

🎵 Why does this day feel like it's passing by so quickly

When I count to three  
Can everything disappear like a dream

And I go back to where I was before 🎶

The curtains draw open, the stage is revealed. A pianist and a dancer bow to the audience.

🎵 The dream that I've been dreaming of has taken off

And when I look out the window, it's ready to land  
The dream that I've been dreaming of has taken off  
And when I look out the window, it's ready to land

This place that felt so awkward 🎶

"Sir, we have arrived at the club."

Three sedan cars are parked outside of the building.

"Chan! Are we really going in straight?"

Bang Chan look to his side to see his two best friends getting out of the car and walking towards him.

"Jisung, Changbin, let's go. Tonight, is the start of our legacy."

"Whoo-whoo~ Let's go and crash the party!"

Jisung announces their arrival loudly.

They are invited to be the member of the club a month ago. The procedures for becoming a member is rather complicated to make sure that each member will not have any hidden agenda that'll cause harm to the club. After a thorough history check, Bang Chan was officially approved as a member of this club a week ago. Jisung and Changbin will be allowed entry as his bodyguards.

As they walks into the club, the crescent moon shines brightly while hanging right above the building. The sky is dark with no stars to be seen, except for the moon.

While inside the building, loud cheers and applauds can be heard.

What a twisted yet familiar world.

19 ENDS...

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A/N: Here's another chapter, hope you enjoy it. I plan to keep on writing the chapters with songs name as the title. This one and the next chapter has a lot more details regarding the present world they live in. Stay tuned.


	3. Awaken

🎵 Wake up

I wake up, this strange moment  
Where am I? Who am I?  
Awaken, tears are falling  
Who was I for all this time? 🎶

<Awaken> by SKZ

"Welcome to the club, sir. The refreshments are on the sides of the room and you can order any drinks from the bar. Please be seated as the performance has just started. Hope you enjoy the time over here."  
A young male receptionist dressed in black suit with a bow tie greets the trio at the entrance when they first register with their membership details. He shows them around the main hall and tells them to enjoy the performance that's ongoing.

"Wow, are you seeing this, Chan Hyung? This is magnificent!"  
Jisung marveled at the scene before him.

It is indeed a sight in the main hall. The room is as huge as an opera-sized theater. The room is very dark with only tiny lights that are embedded in the ceiling are shining, illustrating the room like a night sky full of tiny twinkling stars. The stage is the brightest area in the room, directed by two big spotlights, showing the clear outline of the performers.

"Let's go to that table."  
Bang Chan cuts the loud endless excitement from Jisung before he disturbs other patrons who're enjoying the performance. He gives a thank you nod to the receptionist for greeting them before heading to a table that's already occupied with Jisung and Changbin tailing him.

There are three men, wearing black suits with neckties, sitting at the table. The man that's sitting in between of the other two looks up as Bang Chan walks closer to the table.

"Minho?"  
Bang Chan tilts his head towards the direction of the guy who's looking at him right now, while the other two guys remain focused on the stage, uninterested in the newcomers.

"Bang Chan."  
Minho gestures the empty seats opposite of him for the newcomers to join his table. It is a medium-sized round table at the back of the room, far away from the stage but still able to get a full view of it, just the right space for the six of them to have some private conversation.

"Congratulation for passing the test."  
Minho says with a smirk.

"For getting into the club? I bet you know it's easy for me."  
Bang Chan shifts in his seat uneasily. He has contacted with this Minho guy via online platform but this is this the first time they're meeting face-to-face. They know each other's darkest secret, but know nothing about each other personally. He's afraid that he has trusted the wrong party. Playing into the hands of a stranger, endangering not only his life but also his friends, and everyone else who has relied on him as a leader.

"Here's your drink, sir."  
A waiter sets three glasses of champagne in front of them before leaving the table.

Bang Chan's being suspicious of the drink.

"Don't worry. It's a welcoming drink for new members. Everyone had it when they first arrived here. And, I don't buy drinks for strangers."  
Minho smirks after his remarks.

Before Bang Chan says anything, Jisung has already started sipping at the drink. Both Bang Chan and Changbin look at him in astonishment.

Jisung feels the stares and pauses from his drink before giving them the "what?" look. The duo just shake their heads and leave Jisung to continue with his drink in peace. On the other hand, Minho finds this scene amusing.

"Relax. I'm pretty sure you couldn't find much about me just like how clean your records are, right, Mr Hacker?"  
His smirk gets wider as if he's on the upper hand.

"You're tracking my tracts, I need to take precaution."  
Bang Chan hisses while trying to stay in control of his emotion. This Minho is definitely manipulative, a trait of a trader indeed.

"Hmm~"  
Minho playfully hums, holding his hands, fingers crossing, elbows on the table and leans forward while speaking in a low, persuasive voice.  
"Fair enough. We don't trust each other. So, should we call it off or, will our exchange of secrets is strong enough to seal the deal?"

Bang Chan contemplates in silence, observing the other two at Minho sides who are still showing no interest in their conversation. While the two at his own sides are looking at him, waiting impatiently for his answer.

Minho raises one of his eyebrows while keeping the smirk on his face, obviously teasing Bang Chan for taking a little too long to decide.

"Do I have your word that this deal is just between us, and I'll be the one that has the final say?"  
Bang Chan is leaning forward now, trying to show his firm stance.

"Well, that's how we agreed on anyway. You will lead the agenda and I will manage the deals in the group. You be the executor and I be the planner, but as you see, we are still missing an important piece."  
Minho says with a calm expression while maintaining the eye contact.

"I've found that piece while investigating on the club."  
Bang Chan replies.

"Oh? Which is?"

Both of them turn their heads to the stage at the same time.

The pianist is dressed in a classical light brown vest on top of a white long sleeve shirt, plays the melody gracefully while singing the lyrics. The dancer, dressed in a long, light, black fabric that drags on the floor, but it forms a pair of wings when it's being flipped into the air. The audience enjoy the performance with nods of approval, engaging in small discussion from time to time.

Minho smirks again.  
"Are we thinking about the same piece?"

"That's the attractive asset which is going to be part of our deal. In fact, they're performing the song produced by me and my friends."  
Bang Chan replies as he turns back to look at Minho.

"No wonder you had requested me to sell this song to them, you've marked your asset I see. I agree that they will be a very nice bait for our targets. It'll be a loss to me if I fail to seal the deal with you, I'm more likely to lose this magnificent piece, right? So, do we have the deal now?"

"Yes."

"Perfect. Now, let's seal the deal so that you couldn't run off in the mid-way shall we?"  
Minho is teasing again before he turns to the blonde guy on his left side.  
"Felix, the pen of oath."

Felix pulls out a magical, dark glistening rectangular box from his suit, opens it and hands over the pen that's enveloped in a dark aura to Minho.

"Thank you, Felix. Now, let's set the conditions in the contract of death."  
Minho starts to write rapidly with the pen. Soon, multiple neat dark lines appear to be floating in the air, just a few centimetres above the tabletop. He then makes a slight pushing gesture on the lines towards Bang Chan and the contract floats in front of Bang Chan now.  
"Read them carefully. I've noted down the conditions we've both agreed to beforehand, including the new asset. Sign them if you're satisfied with what's written there."

Bang Chan scans the contract carefully along with Jisung and Changbin.

The last line reads:

{ Whoever breaks the contract, pays the price of a soul. }

This means that you'll be a puppet to the one you owe your soul to. Losing any control to your life. But, if the trader breaks his/her own contract, he/she will have to pay the exact same price that's stated in the contract, hence, making the contract fair enough for both parties.

This supernatural event is another reason that's preventing the society to return to the pre-war state, the supernatural existence, later known as "Vector". Like the pen of oath, there are many items that are instilled with vector ever since the war. There're rumors saying that it's due to the fact that vectors infused weapons were equipped during the war. When the final explosion that nearly wiped out the entire human race occurred, that's when the vector dispersed from the weapons into multiple items all around the world. But they have yet to find the original weapons that were first used in the war. A vector needs a vessel to exist in this world. Based on this characteristic, the vector is speculated to be originated from another universe, that somehow got transferred to this world by someone, or maybe something, or maybe by itself. It is still a mystery until now. And the vector has it's own consciousness. When a person owns it, the vector recognizes it as its master and only the owner can equip the vector.

There're three main branches that categorize the different types of vectors. Offensive, defensive, and neutral, the categories are based on their natures. The nature of the pen of oath is categorized as neutral as it can be on either side depending on how one utilizes it. Hence, this type of vectors is mostly used by traders who can make the most out of it due to them being highly intelligent. Offensive vectors are usually used by the elites for controlling the mass and for oppressing the public, creating their own laws by brute force. While defensive vectors have healing effects, usually equipped by healers or performers to provide pleasure and serenity, which are especially rare at present.

The flip side of using vector is that, not everyone has it. Only certain items are infused with vector. And it's finders the keepers rule. This causes a major inequality gap between those who own a vector and those who don't. And people are willing to kill for it. Vector might sound OP but it has two limitations. One, a person is only capable to equip with a single vector. This is another unknown reason that people still fail to understand the underlying mechanism that causes this drawback. It is then speculated that it might be due to the human's body being a weak medium to withstand the enormous energy from two vectors. There're people in the past who're greedy, but each of them died as their bodies disintegrate instantly into air when they tried to own two vectors at once. Two, the vector chooses its master. You can only own it if the vector recognize you worthy as a master. This is done via the process of "pact" where that person enters the consciousness of the vector and converse with it. They will make a pact when that person becomes the owner of the vector. At any time, the person can disown a vector, but a vector can only break the pact when the master encounters near-death experience.

Bang Chan picks up the pen of oath from Minho and signs the contract. The contract floats to Minho again before Minho signed on it and chant a spell. Felix keeps the pen of oath back to the box before chucking it back in his suit. The contract then glows in the dark aura before dissipating around the air, surrounding them with a cloud of faint smoke, before the air around them is clear again.

"That's all about the contract. Now that we're a team, I'll introduce you to my colleagues. This is Felix, as you've already known. And this is Jeongin."  
Minho gestures to the guys on his sides.

The two guys finally switch their attention to the table to greet the guests.  
"Nice to meet you."

"The same back to you. This is-"  
Bang Chan is cut off shortly.

"Hi there, I'm Jisung and this is Changbin."  
Jisung introduces themselves excitedly.  
"Phew, finally we're on the same side. I like your humor by the way, Minho. It's just that I need to play the role of a strict bodygua-"  
He tenses at his own words.  
"Err, Chan hyung, I'm allowed to speak now, am I not?"  
He asks Bang Chan cautiously while avoiding eye contact, realizing too late that he should have gotten the permission first before blurting out everything.

Changbin shakes his head in embarrassment before resting his head on his propped up hand on the table.

"Sigh, it's alright. Try not to let loose of yourself too much tonight. We still have works to do."  
Bang Chan says tiredly, obviously surrendering in keeping Jisung from being overexcited.

Minho raise eyebrows at Jisung.  
"Hm, you got an interesting guy over here. At least I won't be bored while working with you, blockhead."  
The teasing smirk is back on his face again.

"Hehe, Chan hyung can be dense at times but he's very nice and cut-"

"Jisung!"  
Bang Chan is losing it at the moment.

"Opps, sorry. That's TMI. Er, hehe."  
Jisung shrugs then bow slightly in apology to Bang Chan.

"Hmm, interesting."  
Minho is getting some fun.

"Forget about that. Just remember our first mission today. Collecting the asset."  
While Bang Chan is thinking of another brand new 101 ways to shut Jisung's mouth next time.

"Of course."

They shift their focus on the stage again.

There are some louder voices coming from a table at the front now as the performance coming to the end. Some guards and attendants are heading towards that table. Minho and Bang Chan notice this too.

"Actually, I forget to tell you something that's concerning our asset."  
Minho turns to Bang Chan while holding his chin with his hand.

Bang Chan tenses at this remark.  
"And, does it has anything to do with that?"  
He nods towards that commotion.

"Yes. That's the Diederick table. Desmond Diederick visited the club a week ago and it seems like he had set his eyes on our asset-"

"Hyunjin."

Minho pauses in confusion.

"His name is Hyunjin. Stop calling him asset."

"Right, I'm not the one who calls him asset in the first place. So, something interesting happened two days ago that causes as- Hyunjin to perform tonight. You see, it's usually his sister that performs. He just attends to the tables as he's still learning to dance-"

"You mean, he's staged to be on the stage tonight?"

"That's what I think. And Desmond might be furious if he fails to be the sponsor of Hyunjin."

Every performer wishes to be sponsored by a good elite. This will ensure their bright future while maintaining their career as a performer. Once they have a sponsor, they cannot be touched, tainted or abused by others. In other words, a sponsor acts as their guardian. The club will hold a sponsoring event every month for the sake of the performers. The higher bidder will be the sponsor, and they will sign a bond contract that ties the sponsor and the performer for the next 10 years.

"Wait, what do you mean by fail? The Diederick family is the richest-"

Minho's smirk is getting wider as Bang Chan speaks.

"No way! You win the bidding? What did you bid on?"

"Just a stone"

Now, the five guys on the table are staring at Minho.

"Oh, fine. It's the Ballistic stone."

"The what? Are you crazy? That's rare even among the elites!"

A Ballistic stone has the property of amplifying the effectiveness of a vector, that can go as big as x10 of its original effectiveness. But it's very rare, and it is very difficult to preserve one with its unstable form in this world. Hence, it is considered as an item of high value.

"It's alright. We have plenty of them, right Felix, Jeongin?"

The boys nod their heads in agreement, while remaining unfascinated by the fact that Minho bid Hyunjin with a Ballistic stone. The other trio are only able to stare back in astonishment.

"I wonder what kind of deals you have been making..."  
Bang Chan shudders at that thought.

"You'll know eventually."  
Minho just shrugs it off.

"Wait a minute. That means you've already got Hyunjin's contract way before I agreed to sign the contract with you!"  
Bang Chan hates to be the one who's moving exactly to Minho's plan.

"Well, I'm sorry, kay? At least we got our Hyunjin now. And I think we should focus more on the issue we have at hands now. It seems like-"

Shouting and the sound of things smashing, colliding against each other cut off Minho. The stage is a mess now. Desmond and his gang are on the stage, trying to snatch Hyunjin while the attendees and guards are trying to prevent that from happening. The crowds under the stage went berserk, yelling at the stage in frustration. Vectors being pulled out. Fights occuring everywhere, on stage, off stage.

"Damn, seems like a planned chaotic situation. Minho, you, seems to be a little too calm. Mind sharing your plan now?"

"I have my men planted blasts around the building. When you hear the first explosion, get Hyunjin. We'll block and distract others that are in your way. Escape the building through the back door. Take Jeongin, he knows the way. Felix and I will meet you at Port Lithium. We have a ship ready there."

Bang Chan nods at the plan and locks eyes with Minho.  
"You better tell me such important details before D-day next time. My patience's running thin if the plan goes sour-"

"Won't be next time. We're business partners now, not before. So, don't worry about it. Now, we will leave the table first and prepare the escape route. Remember, at the mark of the first explosion."

"Got it."

Minho winks at them before leaving the table with Felix. Bang Chan feels annoyed by his new business partner's behaviors, constantly teasing him and being too playful. But he has a more important business to attend to right now. He perks his ears with high alertness. The commotion gets louder and louder, blood starts to spill. And four of them just remain seated while the whole hall turns upside down.

They wait, and wait, and wait....until they see a large flash across the room, followed by a deafening thunder sound that silence the room, everyone's fallen to the ground due to the unexpected impact from the huge explosion.

The four of them dash to the stage at the sound, towards where the performers are located.

"Stop them!"

Another explosion happens, the last sight they saw of Hyunjin is that the angel with his dark wings being engulfed by the fire, buried in the crowd that are now fighting on the stage. What a mess.

The boys try to push forward to the stage but they're too many people fighting, blocking their path. They have no other option but to start fighting as well.

The commotion resumes, the hall is on fire, the building is burning in bright flames, decorating its original golden structure. The crescent moon calmly reflects the fire that dances around the building, while hanging high up in the dark night sky.

The fire has attracted many scavengers from the outside now. As they look on the burning building with hungry eyes, more gather around the building.  
"The place of elitessss."  
Hundreds of people had gathered around the building, waiting for the fire to die down before going in for vector-hunting.

🎵 Oh, oh, better watch out

Oh, oh, it's dangerous  
Oh, oh, better watch out 🎶

<District 9> by SKZ

Awaken ENDS...

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Hope you enjoy this one as well. The next chapter will be the start of their agenda. Stay tuned.


	4. District 9: Part I

In the private room on the top floor of the filthy wealth off Song's family building, the mood is heavy with the constant built up tension.

"So, my guest has arrived."

There are only three people in the large dining hall, where it is surrounded with large glass panels, giving a 360 degree panorama view of the city from the 25th floor. A middle age looking guy is dressed in an oversize white singlet hoodie paired with a baggy pants. He is filling a wineglass while talking to his guests. He appears to be rather casual, with his messy hair and casual clothing, clearly the opposite style of the grand setting of the candlelight dinner and the other two who are dressed in rather former clothing, standing opposite of him.

"Woojin, have a seat. Just for you, I'm opening this expensive wine that's been sitting in my dad's wine cellar for awhile now. Someone told me that this is something good. Here, have some."  
The guy hands over the filled wineglass to Woojin.

"Master Song, we-"

"Uh-uh, shh Woojin. Just do what I said. Don't make me repeat myself. Sit."

Woojin and Yeji tense at the guy's words. They move to sit but the guy smashes an empty wineglass right in front of Yeji on the table. Woojin just manages to pull Yeji backwards in time from the broken shards.

"Who allows you to sit? I only have one guest, and that's Woojin."  
The guy nonchalantly sit on the edge of the dining table, the wine bottle still in his hand as he leans over to their direction.  
"Don't you have something to say, bitch?"

Woojin narrows his eyebrows at the guy's remark while Yeji shivers in fear.

"It's okay, Yeji. I'm here. Go and apologize."  
Woojin says to Yeji as his face forms a sad smile, trying to reassure Yeji that everything will be alright.

Yeji nods and walks cautiously to Master Song. She stops shortly before Master Song and bows in 90 degrees.  
"Master Song, I'm truly sorry on what happened to you. Please forgive me."

The guy takes a few steps forward while Yeji shuts her eyes and praying hard on whatever that's about to happen to her, just stop happening.

Crash!

"Yeji!"

"Stop right there!"  
Master Song commands Woojin to stay right at his place while his hand is still holding the neck of the broken wine bottle.

Yeji is now kneel-sitting on the floor, with red wine mixed with her own blood flowing from her forehead, staining her once pale face and her dress. She's surrounded by pieces of broken shards on the floor, stunned.

"Now, clean up the place. Then, I'll forgive you."  
Master Song throws the remaining wine bottle on the floor beside Yeji and picks up a napkin from the dining table, casually wiping his hands that are stained by the red wine.

Yeji is only able to look at him in shocked. She can't even move a single muscle in her body.

Woojin glares at him.  
"Master Song, I understand that you're angry. However, Yeji is not just some girl that you can mess around. I think you're smart enough to know what I mean."  
Woojin hisses in a dead serious tone while trying to stay calm.

A slight glimpse of fear is reflected in Master Song's eyes. But it's just very briefly that it can be easily overlooked if Woojin was not glaring at him for the entire time.  
"You do not speak that way to me. So what if she's his daughter? He never shows up for her anyway. He's only interested in vector. And sadly, this bitch is too weak to use vector."  
He looks at her pitifully.  
"He will thank me for teaching such a worthless hag-"

"Enough! I bring Yeji here as you wish, for an APOLOGY. Not as your punching bag. We're leaving."  
Woojin walks over to support Yeji as he helps her to stand. He pulls out a handkerchief and presses over her wound on her head.  
"Yeji, let's go. We're heading home"

"You can't-"

"If you come any nearer, I'll kill you. I'm trying to make a deal with you for mutual benefits. But, you went too far. Don't forget that I'm a member of D-Arc. I'm keeping my silence doesn't mean that I agree with what you did. If you're my enemy, it won't be any issue for me to kill you, even though my family has business ties with your family."  
Woojin warns the stunned Master as he supports Yeji towards the door.

"Y-you, Woojin! You messed up the deal! Your father will be enraged!"  
The Master tries to threaten Woojin but it is pointless.

"Sure, go ahead and complain. Without your family background, you're nothing but a tattletale. At least, I'm still standing on my own ground even without my father's influence. You better pray that your family reputation is still intact. I wonder what'll happen when others know that the once rich family Song is now nothing but an empty shell with a fake facade."

Master Song seems to be shocked at what Woojin has just said.  
"How did you-"

Just when Woojin and Yeji opens the door, a servant runs into the room.  
"M-master! This is bad! The-the club. The club's on fire!"

The three of them stare at the servant, frozen.

"What!? What kind of bullshits are you spewing right now?"  
Master Song is clearly upset with Woojin's behavior but now with this bad news, he's beyond annoyed. The club is one of the family business that his father had entrusted to him. Now, it's on fire when their family is suffering great loss from other business, his father is going to be very disappointed in him.  
"Bring those lazy ass to put out the fire! What are they doing when they're needed!"

"B-but Master, it's impossible right now. There're hundreds, no might be thousands now. Scavengers have surrounded the building, waiting for the hunting ground-"

"Sc-scaveng-gers, shit."  
Master Song covers his mouth with a hand, unable to believe what has been told to him.

Scavengers are referred to the people who take advantage of the weak, the victims, the easy targets that were being left out after the war and after being bullied by the elites. They take almost everything, food, shelter, and weapons. They're no different from the elites, they kill weak babies, children, rape the vulnerable, rob the defenseless people. In another word, they're a lower class of monsters, those without wealth, social status, or powerful vector. But they are the exact replica of the elites, excluding the three criteria.

"No, Hyunjin-"  
Yeji's legs give out while Woojin holds her standing.

"It's ok Yeji. Let's go back first. They might've escaped."  
Woojin is trying to comfort Yeji, but his shaking voice sounds more like he is trying to convince himself.

Both of them try to exit the dining area again when a loud, distant explosion is heard. The four of them glance over to the bright, huge mushroom smoke. That direction is where the club is located in.

This time, Yeji fells to the ground, sobbing, pulling Woojin along with her. Woojin is speechless for a few minutes before muttering, "No way. This can't be it." An explosion that is as huge as it is even visible for them at tens of kilometres away, can only means that the damage is serious at the site.

"C'mon Yeji, we need to go back. It's not the time for crying. They need us. Seungmin, and Hyunjin. Please, Yeji. We need to go."

Yeji looks up at Woojin's concerned face. She nods slowly as she forces herself to stop crying.  
"You're right. They need us. Let's go."

Both of them stand up again and leave the dining area.

"No, wait. You guys can't go there."  
Master Song calls after them but with no response received. But his warning is sincere this time.  
"How're they gonna get pass the scavengers?"  
The Master questions in a whisper as he looks at the servant who has the same concerning expression as him.

Back at the club...

"Shit, I lose him! Where's him? You guys see him?"  
Bang Chan is knocking off the people that's blocking their way along with Changbin and Jisung, while Jeongin is following closely behind them.

"No, but I thought I saw him being pulled by that old guy that you had mentioned with Minho just now."  
Changbin replies after punching a guy that's throwing himself at him.

"You mean Desmond Diederick!? Fuc- We need to find him, hurry!"  
Bang Chan and Jeongin look at each other in concern. They hurry off to the stage, trying to find clues to the location of Hyunjin.

"Wait, that's the guy who's at Desmond's table."  
Jeongin notices a guy who's sharing the table with Desmond just now. He's on the stage, trying to escape the room.

Soon, he is tackled by Changbin. Both Jisung and Changbin grab the guy by his arm, dragging him out of the room from the door beside the stage.

"Where's Desmond?"  
Bang Chan questions him.

"Wh-who-"

Piak!

A slap lands across his face as soon as he replied. Changbin is quicker on taking action than speaking.  
"You better answer properly this time."

The guy shrinks in fear with the four pairs of eyes staring daggers at him.  
"H-he drag the angel out to the corridor, th-that way."  
He points to a dark, long narrow corridor that's unable to see the end of it.

"You better not lie."  
Jisung drops the guy on the floor as he nods, indicating he's telling the truth. The four of them rush to the direction that he's pointed.

🎵 Flip it all up, ayy oh

Flip everything up now, ayy oh  
Knock it off with your negative vibes, back off  
That's wrong 🎶

At the end of the narrow corridor...

"Let me go! Please, just let me go."  
Hyunjin is being dragged by Desmond, a well built guy, twice of Hyunjin's size. Hyunjin's wrist has formed a large bright red patch after the rough dragging and struggling to escape.

"Move on you bitch!"  
Desmond continues dragging Hyunjin as his servant follows them close behind.  
"I've bought you. Be grateful that I'm your sponsor. Something as pretty as you wouldn't have survived in this harsh world without my protection-"

"No! I don't wanna go. I want to stay with Woojin and Seungmin. Let me go now!"

Hyunjin bites on the hand that's gripping his wrist.

"Fuck!"

Slap!

Desmond hits Hyunjin in the head, causing Hyunjin to be thrown off to the ground after the strong slap. Hyunjin whimpers in pain. He feels the room is spinning in his head. He has had a head concussion just now on the stage when someone accidentally threw a solid glass ashtray infused with vector at him. The slap landed on his concussion site, now he's having a nosebleed while feeling dizzy.

Desmond is enraged now, he walks over, grabs Hyunjin by his hair and pulls him up until his face is just a few centimetres away from Desmond's.  
"You stubborn shit. I told you you're mine now. Or you want me to fuck you now, huh? Then no one else will want to be a sponsor of a dirty dancer with no value."  
Desmond threatens with a smirk.

Hyunjin winces in pain and shudders at Desmond words. He's too dizzy and weak to speak or move.

"Oh, so you like that idea, huh, seeing how quiet you're right now."  
Suddenly, Desmond is eyeing Hyunjin. From his long, silky raven hair that's decorated with golden beads, to his beautiful pale porcelain face, to the plump red lips, down to his slender body of a dancer. He gulps down with his eyes full of desire.  
"Fine, I'll give you what you want."

Desmond drops Hyunjin on the floor and starts ripping off Hyunjin's black dress. The servant turns away with his back facing the duo.

🎵 Why are you talking like you know me?

Though I don't even know myself, oh  
Get lost, it's our district, get outta here  
You don't belong here 🎶

"No! St-stop! Stop!"  
Hyunjin is gripping at his dress like his life is depending on it.  
"Seungmin! Seungmin! Help! Woojin! N-no, please..."  
Hyunjin is losing his consciousness as he sobs. His hands are weakening on his chest as the monster continues ripping his clothes.  
"I'm sorry guys..."  
He apologizes in his mind, thinking that he'll never survive the night and see his friends again. As his consciousness fades, he turns his head to the side and closes his eyes, trying to numb all the pains by disconnecting himself from the world.

"Get off him!"  
Seungmin has been running after them right after he had successfully escaped the commotion. He is furious with the sight before him after the long chase. He runs over but is stopped by the servant.

"Seungmin? Oh, looking for your little friend?"  
Desmond holds Hyunjin's upper body up by his neck, speaking in a teasing voice. Hyunjin's white chest is exposed behind the torn stripes of clothing. There are blood flowing from the side of his head and his nose.  
"Opps, I think I've roughed him up a bit. You see, I've forgotten how to handle delicate things now-"

"Shut the fuck up! Let go of him now! You filthy piece of shit!"  
Seungmin shouts in anger as he tries to shake off the strong grip of the servant.

Desmond's eyes darken at Seungmin's attitude.  
"You think you can do something? I'll fuck him over right now and I bet all you can do is look."  
Desmond presses Hyunjin on the floor with one of his hand moves to Hyunjin's lower body, unzipping the pants.

Seungmin's body went limp at the scene he is witnessing.  
"N-no..."  
He just realized that what Desmond said is right. He can do nothing without Woojin, he has nothing to save Hyunjin.

Shoo- Bang!

Suddenly, a dark shadow jumps at Desmond in a swift movement, throwing Desmond on the ground, far away from Hyunjin. Another guy hits the servant at the back of his head, freeing Seungmin as the servant falls limp on the ground.

Seungmin quickly runs over to Hyunjin. He holds his head in his arms.  
"Hyunjin-ah. Oh my god. Please Jinnie, please. Open your eyes, please. I'm so-so sorry."  
He sobs as he touches Hyunjin's lifeless face.

A jacket is dropped on Hyunjin, covering his body from the cold air. Seungmin looks up to meet the eyes of the jacket's owner.

"Let me check on him. I know some medic."

Seungmin is reluctant at first, after all the events, his friend almost got raped. He's cautious with strangers now.

The guy seems to be impatient.  
"C'mon, we just saved your ass, we wouldn't harm him. Let me check on his injuries."

Seungmin nods and moves away. The guy finally kneels beside the unconscious Hyunjin and inspects the wound on his head, checks his pulse and breathing.

"He's alright for now. He might have gotten a hard blow on his head that might leaves some dizziness in him for the next few days, but he will recover."  
The guy unintentionally marvels at Hyunjin's appearance when he was inspecting his wounds. He didn't get to enjoy the performance just now as they were too focused on the conversation with Minho. Now he notices what a beauty Hyunjin is and understands why they praise about his value, he's truly like an angel. A frown quickly forms on his face as he recalls the tragic event that's just about to happen to him if they didn't make it in time. He hopes that Hyunjin will not remember this nightmarish event when he regains consciousness later.

"Changbin, we need to leave now as they're holding the beast down."  
Another guy who's with Changbin urges them.

Not far from them, the other three guys are fighting on the ground.

Seungmin is confused and panicked as Changbin holds Hyunjin up in his arms.  
"Leave? To where? Where are you taking Hyunjin to? Give him back to-"

"Look, Seungmin. This place is burning down. Hyunjin needs help, fast. We have a safe place. No time to explain now. But, we have the bond contract of Hyunjin. Whether you're coming or not, we're bringing him with us."  
Changbin walks away towards the exit with Hyunjin in his arms after telling Seungmin the plan, following Jeongin who's leading in the front.

Seungmin wastes no time and follows suit since they are the sponsor of Hyunjin.

"Stop you guys! Give him back- Urgh"  
Desmond tries to run after Changbin they all but is tackled down by Bang Chan and Jisung.

"Hey, we're your opponent. Focus on your fight will ya."  
Jisung holds him down forcefully while spitting out the words through his gritting teeth. Desmond is huge and strong. It takes both of them to hold him down.

"Do not obstruct me!"  
Desmond pushes them off with a shock wave. He then punches down at the ground hard with vector, causing a large scale earthquake, the floor starts to shake vigorously and cracking, breaking down at a great speed.

"Shit, that guy's gone mad! Is he planning to bury everyone here?!"  
Jisung shouts in shock at the scene before him.

"Jisung, let's go! Run to the balcony!"  
Bang Chan stands up and dashes to the balcony which Jeongin had told them earlier before they reached the end of the corridor.

Jisung dashes after Bang Chan.  
"Whoo-oh, finally, mission done. I'm leaving this damn place and the hulk!"

"Argh! You guys will be hunted down by the company!"  
The angry Desmond roars after them, his voice echoes throughout the building, sending shivers to Bang Chan and Jisung, but they keep on running, happily heading to Port Lithium.

🎵 They just look us as a bunch of troublemakers

It won't be an easy task to change their views  
But we won't get down on misconceptions and bias  
It's our mission to prove who we are 🎶

District 9...To be continue...

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: I notice that this is a rather long chapter, which is why I've separated them into two chapters. Hope you guys are enjoying the story, the song, and also the images. You might be wondering if Hyunjin is supposed to have blonde hair. That'll be explained soon. Stay tuned to the next part.


	5. District 9: Part II

"Hey, over here!"  
Changbin called out to them.

Everyone else was already on the ship. The ship left the port after Bang Chan and Jisung joined them onboard. They're sailing towards another land far away from the fire. The explosions ceased right after they had departed from the port.

"Wow, that's a lot of explosives. How many of them have you planted?"  
Bang Chan was fascinated by the whole plan.

"Lost count of it."  
Minho just shrugged it off like it's not a big deal.

"How did you clear a route for us in the crowd of scavengers?"  
Bang Chan had noticed a few groups of scavengers in distant as they escaped the club, but none of them were blocking their way.

"Well, multiple explosions went off around your escape route. If their brains are still intact, I don't think they'd like to hang around there to be blasted into pieces."  
Minho's back with his smirk.

Bang Chan reminded himself not to be reckless around a person like Minho, who seemed to be not giving a damn about other people's lives that're irrelevant to him.

"So, what are we gonna do now? We've pissed off lots of big shots today to stay low at anywhere else."  
Seungmin was worried as he looked at the direction where Changbin and Felix, who were in charge of the medical works, had left with Hyunjin earlier to start the treatment.

"Who says we're staying low?"  
Minho looked over to Bang Chan, encouraging him to explain their plan to the new member.

"We are forming a rebellion."

"A what? Are you crazy? To whom? We don't have countries, kings or government anymore. Are you going against the whole worl-"

"That's right. That's exactly what I mean. We are changing this sickening world, bringing back the peace that we have longed for."

Seungmin stared at Bang Chan with his widen eyes, couldn't believe of what he had just heard. He's worried if he have made the wrong decision, following these strangers, bringing Hyunjin along without consulting with Woojin.

 _"For God's sake, these people are crazy! What they're planning is dangerous. It can easily get us killed. I need to escape here with Hyunjin when he wakes up later."_  
Seungmin starts to plan their escape when his thought was interfered.

"You can leave whenever you want, Seungmin. We won't force you."  
Minho tells him while gesturing at the faraway land.  
"There, we'll be loading some stuff over that port soon. You can leave if you want."

"R-really?"  
Seungmin was even more confused now with Minho reading out loud his mind.

Bang Chan was confused too at Minho's suggestion.

"But, it's only you. Hyunjin has to stay with us."  
As Minho continued, it made much more sense to Bang Chan now regarding Minho's intention.

"What?! No way I'm leaving Hyunjin he-"

Jeongin handed over a file to Minho, who in turn, took it and flipped it open. He showed Seungmin the document that's attached in the file which left Seungmin speechless. It's the bond contract of Hyunjin. This means that Minho is the sponsor and has the full authority over Hyunjin as long as he hold the contract.

Seungmin felt that something's fishy about these guys when he first heard about their plan, in addition with this bond contract, they must be up to no good. He pursued further with the questioning.  
"Tell me honestly, did you win the contract because Hyunjin is part of your plan?"

"Of course. Hyunjin, in fact, is the centre piece of our master plan."  
Minho answered nonchalantly.

Seungmin felt weak in his legs after hearing Minho's reply. He moved to the side of the ship, holding onto the taffrail to support himself.

 _"What have I done? They just saved us 'cause he's part of their plan...Not because they're kind poeple..."_  
He was disappointed at himself for not being able to keep his promise to Yeji. Now, he had put Hyunjin in a dangerous position.

"Minho!"  
Although Bang Chan's the one who had first suggested that Hyunjin as their asset, he will still wanted to treat them as part of their pack instead of treating them as a property. He's turned off by how Minho had treated the new members as if they're goods.  
"Mind your words. They are part of our group now. Don't treat them as a mere chess piece of your game."

A brief disagreement flashed across Minho's eyes but it was shrugged off very quickly when Jeongin started to speak.  
"No offence, but It's our way of speaking. We've been dealing with trades for the most of our time. This is the first trade for us to have actual people as part of it. This deal is really important to Minho and all of us. We should start building on our communication style and learn to work with each other as a team if we want to win this fight, instead of creating more conflicts."

Everyone was in deep thought after listening to Jeongin's sincere advice before the silence was broken by Jisung.

"Are you used to be a public speaker before? You deliver great speech!"  
Jisung exclaimed with a thumb up. His sudden loud and cheerful remark helped to lightened up the heavy mood. Everyone, including Seungmin, smiled at Jisung's carefree attitude.

Seungmin thought that they might not be as heartless and bad as he had initially thought about them. Maybe, they can even help him and Hyunjin to reunite with Woojin later on.  
"I will stay. I need to be by Hyunjin's side. I've decided to stick with your plan, although it's a risky one. However, on one condition, you must never force Hyunjin to do anything without his consent."

Minho smirked at Seungmin's naivety. With his experience, he can easily persuade Hyunjin if he wants. But he wouldn't do that if it's unnecessary. He gave Bang Chan a nod, indicating that he's fine with that condition raised by Seungmin.

"Deal. Welcome on board."  
Bang Chan replied and then proceed to suggest that they should introduce each other properly, at least get to know each other's name as the first step to their team building. Jeongin was supportive of this suggestion.

"Right, let's go to the cabin and we'll have a good chat over a cup of coffee."  
Bang Chan led the gang under the roof for a cozier atmosphere.

"I'll start first. I'm Bang Chan, 22. I'm a hacker. I've been working closely with Jisung and Changbin after post-war and we've founded a team of 6. We're doing info and drugs transactions. The other 3 are always on the move and in different places for transactions and collecting Intel."

"Hi, I'm Jisung! I'm the middleman of Chan's group, dealing with buyers and sellers directly. And I'm 20."

"I'm Minho, 24. Dealing, bargaining, and tricks are my expertise. I only care about profit of my group, which consist of me, Jeongin and Felix. We hire trustworthy people for practical jobs time to time, just like those who planted the bombs today."

"Hi, I'm Jeongin, 19. I've been working with Minho since post-war. I'm in charge of analyzing risks and benefits of the deals before it's presented for Minho who makes the final call. I also help to assess the people that we hired from reliable source."

Everyone turned to Seungmin, waiting for the last one in the room to introduce himself.

"Er, I'm Seungmin. You'd prob did a background check on me and Hyunjin already."  
Seeing that they have a hacker and had been calling his name, Seungmin's sure that their information had been exposed.  
"I'm 20. We are performers since post-war. I'm a singer who plays the piano too."

"Hey, same age buddy! I'm sure we'll get along well!"  
Jisung shook Seungmin's hand as he greeted him warmly.

"Great! Now we have introduced ourselves except for the other three. Seems like we're roughly the same age, just speak comfortably with each other. We'll talk more about ourselves during dinner time when everyone's present. Now, I will talk about our plan."  
Bang Chan took out his laptop and started reading from the screen, along with Minho sitting close by, looking at the screen time to time.

"We'll disguise ourselves as musical performers, and travel from places to places while we infiltrate the society, changing the system. I'm sure there's still a major system controlling the society even though it's without any official governing institution now. There're elites out there acting as dictators, forcing others to conform to their regulations. The most influential gang currently is the Occasus. They have a HQ, a.k.a Orcus. There, is the main base for their vector storage along with the new drugs and techs they've been hiding and storing for the use of their own benefits. But nobody knows the exact location of the Orcus. There're actually 7 elites managing Occasus, who are known as Nox. It is important to track them down as we believe that they are the primary gang that's controlling the other small gangs all over the world. Most importantly, there are rumors that they're keeping part of the original vector vessel in the Orcus. Some said that the Nox are trying to find a way to reopen the portal to the vector's dimension. These are the info that my team has been collecting so far."

Bang Chan turned his laptop around for the others to see the pictures of the Occasus, secretly taken by his intel team before continuing on his explanation.

"They're working closely with traders, monopolizing the market, doing lots of inhumane trades, such as...slavery, _madenia_ , and purging."

The newly founded inhumane act in the post-war is madenia. This refers to the trading of virgin women or children to meet the buyers' demands. The purposes of buying them are vastly varied. Some bought them to be trained as assassins. Some are bought as entertainment for the higher ranks elites gathering. Some are bought as a property, and this is the worst case as they have no fixed role, in another word, slavery. The main characteristic of the good of madenia is, they have to be pure and untainted. Hence, it's a high value deal only occurring between elites.

The room went silent right after Bang Chan finished his last sentence. They know that things are bad but to be reminded in this way was shocking to some of them too. They thought that the world wouldn't get any worst but elites have been proving them wrong.

"They've been controlling the scavengers by selling addictive drugs. They even offer the other elites on purging deals, including the purge of another elite group. That's how strong the Occasus group. Currently, we only get the side profile of one Nox."  
Bang Chan click on the mouse pad. An image of a hooded guy with his side profile popped up on the screen.

"He's usually on the purging site, cleaning up the aftermath. Some people said that due to the blood lust, he's been drinking other elites' blood for keeping his youth, hence, he's always there after every purge."

Seungmin couldn't believe of what Bang Chan had just said.  
"People are so fucked up that they're even trying to act like vampires now? What're they thinking?!"

"You never know what can happen. Especially since the arrival of vector, nothing seems normal nor impossible anymore."  
Jeongin shook his head as he spoke.

"Our next destination is Valkyrie. It's a small island, no one, at least those big shots that most prob hunting our ass now will never go as it's a worthless island to the world. It will be a good place as our starting point and also to gain supporters."  
Minho continued from where Bang Chan left.

"We've been collecting information as we're trading. The current alpha gang in Valkyrie is The Oneus. People over there trust them a lot. If we can make a deal with them, it'll be great for our plan. Even though if we failed to get them on our side, it's still favorable to us as the people over there seem to be gullible and have been taking life easy. We can persuade them through our performance."  
Jeongin elaborated on their target's information.

"Wait a sec. If there's no major issue over there, I don't see a reason for us to interrupt their lives over there. Why Valkyrie?"  
Bang Chan did not understand the reason behind the first target that Minho and Jeongin had chosen.

"Resources. If we're to travel around the world, we need unlimited resources."  
Minho's eyes darkened,  
"The Mirage Pouch, is right there."

Mirage Pouch is another vector item in the form of a mirror. It is said to be part of the original vector vessel (OVV). Meaning that anyone can use it without making a pact with it. It acts as a gate between their current dimension to the vector's origin dimension. So far, it's rumored that nothing bigger or more powerful than the pouch can pass through the mirror. Hence, it's safe to assume that no foreign enemies from the vector world that they can't handle will be coming out from the pouch and no human can pass through the pouch either. They can't draw vectors via the pouch, however, they can use the pouch to their advantage by transforming raw energy from the other dimension into fuel or as an amplifier to the vector owned by them.

[In case it's getting complicated, here's the note/simplified version:  
Vector = soul/humans  
Raw energy = nutrient  
*Feeding more raw energy to the vector will result in increased effectiveness/stronger vector*

OVV = The first vector infused weapon in this world (that started the war), the most powerful and the only vector on Earth that can be used by anyone without a pact]

"It's an insider info which hacking will find nothing about it. We'd heard it from a merchant who dropped by at Valkyrie about 3 days ago. He told us about that as he'd done some PI job himself and stumbled upon it. Although it's a speculation, it's likely to be true, since the location of the pouch has been surrounded by a vector infused invisible enhancement."  
Jeongin took over the explanation after Minho.

Before Seungmin can ask anything, Minho sensed the question and proceeded to explain,  
"The elites tend to overlook such a remote island, never even thought of landing their feet on Valkyrie. Thus, none of them had even thought of the possibility of that pouch being kept over there. And this is a new recent finding."

"Then why that merchant is not taking it, but tells you about it."  
Seungmin can't understand this part. So did the others.

"Mutual benefits. He has ongoing deals with the traders on Valkyrie. If he were to break their trust, he'd lost a business that's more useful to him than the pouch. Everyone has different values set on a single item. It might be useful to one but useless for the other. Instead of using it himself, he decided to trade this info with us."  
Jeongin explained again.

"Wait, what did you offer him?"  
Bang Chan's worried that they've traded this info with something even more valuable, cf. the Ballistic stone incident.

"You don't wanna know. Pfft."  
Minho's teasing Bang Chan again with no further explanation given on that matter.  
"But we need to act fast. Merchants are profit driven. We need to get the pouch before the news reach the other elites.

"Alright, Valkyrie it is. Is everyone clear so far?"  
Bang Chan asked and everyone in the room nodded.

"I'll be leading you guys along with Minho. We'll be assigning roles. Minho's team is on dealing with trades and managing our resources and finance. My team will be carrying out the infiltration mission and directly contact with the elites. Seungmin and Hyunjin can join any team or you can also choose to stay solely as performers. Any objection?"

Silence.

"Right, now we need a name for our musical group. Hmmm, how about Stray Kids? We're strayed from our home anyway right?"

"I like it."

"Sounds good."

"Can do."

Everyone agreed to the band name.

"Now, think of a stage name for yourself. With each of us being hunted down, you might not want to use your real names. I'll use Christopher, and you can just call me Christ"

"I'll be Lee Know."  
Minho sensed the stares.  
"What? I know much more than you guys. And it sounds right to me."

They just nodded and moved on to the next person.

"I'll use J.One!"  
Jisung yelled.

"No, Jisung, you can't. You've used that while you're dealing drugs back then. Someone might recognize it. Pick another one."

"Then, I'll just go with my surname, Han. I rarely use it in any occasion. That'll do right?"

"Yeah, that'll do. What about Seungmin and Jeongin?"  
Bang Chan asked.

"I'll be Sky."  
Seungmin said.

Others nodded then turned to Jeongin.

"Erm....I-I don't know."

"How about I.N.?"  
Bang Chan suggested.

"I.N.? Why's that?"

"Information Network?"  
Minho raised an eyebrow at Bang Chan with his question.

"That sounds just like you! You're so informative and it sounds cool!"  
Jisung yelled again.

"Make sense. I'll use that."

"Great, everyone's got their stage name now. And it'll be best if we don't call each other's real name in public. Now, we'll just need to tell the other three about the plan."

In the other room...

Felix was cleaning up the medical equipment and the bloodstained gauze and clothes. Changbin was tying up the bandage on the last wound on Hyunjin's wrist.

"Do you think he'll ever recover from the shock?"  
Felix asked as he observed the pretty boy.

"He will. In fact, he must. This is the harsh reality. Nobody cares about your sufferings or cries. They only listen to you when you have something good to offer."  
Changbin said as he swept strands of hair that's covering Hyunjin's eyes and tucked them behind his ear.

Suddenly, his eyelids fluttered a couple of times before opening in a wide stare. Hyunjin pushed Changbin off and tried to run away but his legs were too weak to even stand up and his whole body were hurting badly. He ended up crashing to the table next to the bed, pushing off all the medical apparatus off the table before falling on the floor. He winced in pain while holding his own body.

"Hey, hey, calm down, Hyunjin."  
Changbin moved a step closer to him but halted as he saw Hyunjin tried to climbed away further to create distance between them. Hyunjin was looking frantically at Changbin and Felix alternatively.

"It's ok now. You're safe. I won't go nearer to you. We are here to help."  
Changbin assured him in a soft voice.

Hyunjin looked at the bandages on his limbs.

"Let us know when you're ready for us to help you get up, alright? Felix, can you get some water and chocolate for Hyunjin? He must be hungry and parched."

"Sure. Won't be a minute."

The room was deadly silent with the ticking clock on the wall. Hyunjin was staring at Changbin, still sitting on the floor while Changbin was standing 2 metres away from him, just looking at the small window of the cabin, waiting for Hyunjin to calm down.

"That's Felix and I'm Changbin. We were tending to your wounds when you're unconscious."

Hyunjin suddenly froze to his words and opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.

"Don't worry. Your friend's safe as well-"

Bang! The door opened wide loudly with Seungmin rushing in and embraced his friend in a warm hug.

"Hyunjin! Are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere else?"

The boy just shook his head while digging his head deeper into Seungmin's embrace. It's been a long night for him to be in contact with the familiar scent and hug of his friend.

"Hey, everything's alright now. We'll be ok."  
Seungmin continued assuring the shaking Hyunjin while rocking him gently as if he's rocking a baby to sleep.

"Here's the wat- Oh, everyone's here."  
Felix returned with a glass of warm water and a chocolate bar. He found everyone's standing at the entrance of the room, poking their heads into the door frame.

"Hey Hyunjin, the floor is cold. Let's put you back to the bed alright?"  
Seungmin cupped Hyunjin's face while talking to him.

Hyunjin just nodded. Seungmin picked him up in his arms and gently put him on the bed, tucking him in the blanket. Once Hyunjin had calmed down, his hair turned blonde and shorter.

Changbin was disappointed by the fact that he was the one who've been taking care of him but he only allowed Seungmin to be close and not even a "thank you" was received. But now he's more interested in Hyunjin after seeing the hair colour changed. He'd been sensing a strong fluctuating energy from him since he last checked on him at the club. It's as if he's the vector himself. He promised himself to get a chance to investigate the energy radiating from Hyunjin later on. He picked up the apparatus on the floor while suggesting,  
"He should hydrate himself since it been hours after he-"  
Changbin dropped the sentence after realizing that he almost recalling the nightmare for Hyunjin. He peeked at the boy and was relieved as Hyunjin didn't seem to hear him.

"Here, drink some of the water."  
Felix handed him the glass.

Hyunjin was wearied of Felix at first but took the glass after Seungmin told him that they were their saviors.

Knock, knock.

"Ehem, after you guys settle down, we'll be having dinner at the dining area. We'll get to know each other better and talk about our next move."  
Bang Chan spoke.  
"It's important, hope to see you there."  
He closed the door before leading the group, along with Changbin and Felix to the dining area.

"Seungmin"

"Hm?"

"Are we not going to see Woojin and Yeji anymore?"

"No, we're going to meet them, but not now. Hyunjin, we might need to work together with them. They're good people. Can you do that?"  
Seungmin tried to convince Hyunjin, and himself.

"Mmm."  
Hyunjin nodded.  
"I-I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?"

"For worrying you."

"Hyunjin, you did nothing wrong. You don't have to apologize."  
Seungmin was afraid that Hyunjin's blaming himself for whatever happened that night.

"But I pushed your friend away. I-I didn't manage to thank him after he had treated my wounds..."

"Oh- Er, well you can thank him later over the dinner. I don't think he'll mind."  
Seungmin felt a flash of relief when Hyunjin did not mention about the incident with Desmond.

"I'll do that. Thanks Minnie!"  
Hyunjin's beaming a smile to him. Seungmin smiled back in response but he had a lot of thinking in his mind.

Dinning area...

The chattering faded as Seungmin and Hyunjin arrived.

"Hi, take a seat. We've started eating as you guys were taking longer than we've expected."  
Bang Chan welcomed them to the table.

"So-sorry! We didn't mean to let you guys wait."  
Hyunjin bowed in apology.

"Oh c'mon, he's just joking. Come and eat! Oh my, you're so skinny!"  
Jisung wrapped his arm over Hyunjin's neck and pulled him to the table. Making him to sit and filled up his plate with meat and bread.

Seungmin took a seat at the end of the table, next to Jeongin.

"We've already introduced ourselves just now. But we'll do a simple introduction for these three. I'm Bang Chan and you'll call me Christ in public. We have our stage names for safety purpose and you guys should come up with one too."

Each of them reintroduced themselves followed by their alias.

"I'm Changbin, 21. I'm in charge of producing drugs and inventing new substance for sale. Been working with Chan and Jisung since post-war. I'm experimenting on vectors too as personal interest. And you can call me Lewis in public."

"I'm Felix, 20. I'm in charge of restocking,managing and keeping our goods from the deals. You can call me Felix as I've never been introduced to anyone yet other than the people in this room."

"I'm Hyunjin. I'm 20 too. I'm a dancer...You can call me Sam. And, thank you for helping me... Changbin and Felix."

"No worries! Tell me if it hurts, I've real effective painkillers."  
Changbin winked at him while Felix gave him a nod of acknowledgment with a smile.

"Sweet! Now we know each other better. Let's dig in before the food gets cold."  
Bang Chan announced.

"It's already long cold..."  
Minho responded by poking the meat with his fork.

As they're eating, Bang Chan continued to explain their plan to the trio who had missed the earlier meeting. After that, they had some fun with light jokes, and some mini games which Changbin had lost. He ended up being assigned to the dish washing duty. More chatting throughout the night before they called it a day. Without realizing, their ship was getting closer to the small island. Cottages, trees and the hills were coming into view from the windows of the dining area.

🎵 Open the door of heaven

I wanna find her  
I'm calling your name  
Open the door of heaven  
I wanna find her  
I'm calling your name  
There's no other way

Shine the light  
On my dark life  
Shine the light  
I wanna walk with you on this rough path 🎶

<Valkyrie> by Oneus

District 9: Part II ENDS...

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A/N: That's a real long chapter. I'm thinking of breaking it into another chapter but changed my mind since I break chapter based on the theme to the title. Hence, I decide to structure it this way. Some chaps might be shorter while some might be longer depending on the content. The things that're different in this chap: 1. the tenses used; 2. intro to the other group's song (English translation by Klyrics). Hope you enjoy this chapter and stay tuned.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Preview:

"What do you mean Oneus is no longer in control? There's a power struggle yesterday!?"


	6. REVEAL

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first arc of the story.

They had sailed on the sea for the whole night. When the sunrise shone upon the deck of the ship, the Island of Valkyrie came into view. As the ship sailed through the fog, they were getting closer to the pier that was surrounded with rocks of different sizes.

"Wow, look at that! I didn't expect an unknown island looks this good!"  
Jisung was the first one to wake up and saw the magnificent view, followed by Minho.

"It's a really nice island. It's just that people prefer a more advanced place to stay. It's kinda remote over here, as if they're completely cut off from the outside world. You'll know what I mean when we're on land."  
Minho replied as he indulged in the breeze and the sound of the waves beating on the rocks.

One by one, all of them finally got out on the deck, witnessing the scenery of the island. As the ship got closer to the pier, something like a luminescent barrier that's surrounding the island flashed in view. The ship penetrated it with ease as the barrier was slit through, extending in the direction of the ship before it sealed up again, enclosing the ship inside of the barrier. The merry noises of the buzzing town came to their ears. The whole island looked much more alive now. It seemed like the barrier was put in place to seclude the island from the outside world, cutting it off completely, including the sound. This explained a lot regarding the unaffected state of Valkyrie and how remote it is to go unnoticed for these many years.

"Wow, how can this place looks so surreal? As if it's not affected by the war. The water is clean, the land is covered in green, and even the air smells fresh! Are you seeing this, Chan?"

"Yes, Changbin. I'm seeing it. This is great."

The ship stopped at the pier, it was then anchored and tied to its place. There were four men who dressed in loose one-piece clothing and a lady with her hair tied to a bun, waiting for them. They greeted the new guests with some hot cross buns and hot ginger tea.

"Ey-ho. Welcome to Valkyrie!"  
One of the men with a white beard and short spiky hair greeted them as they landed their feet on the island.  
"J had informed us about your arrival. He told us to treat you like our special guests. Hence, your accommodation has been arranged. The porter will bring your luggage to the chalet you'll be staying."

Before they arrived, Minho had booked a reservation of their stay with J, the one who was in charge of protecting the island. Hence, they were able to pass through the barrier this easy.

"Thank you for your hospitality."  
Bang Chan smiled in response while others thanked the guy.

"No worries. I'm the Dux of Valkyrie who will be responsible for your stay. I will show you around the island later and you can ask me anything if you have any questions. Please call me Kallor (K-lorr). Here's some refreshment for y'all, please replenish yourselves as you must be tired from the long trip."

Dux a.k.a. guide/leader. The person who knows a lot about the island and is in charge of managing the stay of the guests, merchants, or any foreigners on the island. A Dux is also partially in charge of the social and economical affairs of the island. And this position is only valid on the island as Valkyrie is managed by Oneus, based on their intel.

"Please have some of the buns and ginger tea. It'll keep you warm."  
The lady moved towards them with a tray full of the welcome food and drinks. Each of them took a mug of the warm ginger tea and the steaming hot cross buns from her. They couldn't resist the smell of the delicacy and devoured all of them gratefully after thanking the lady.

"This is Luna. She prepares the food herself. She''ll be in charge of your meals. So, please request any menu you like. As long as it's within Luna's limit, she'll make it for you. Otherwise, it'll be the default Valkyrie local meals just like today."  
Kallor introduced each of them as they were eating.  
"This is Jayme, Ollafi and Ryke. They offered to help me out as I arranged your stay. So, in case I'm out of contact, you can reach out to any of them, and they'll help you out."

"That sounds great. Nice to meet you guys. I'm Christopher, just call me Chris. I'll be in your good hands."

The Stray Kids introduced themselves with their alias and shook hands with the residents of Valkyrie.

"Good, good. Now we know each other, let's get going. I'll show you around the town."  
Kallor waved them over and led the group towards the busy town.

"Although it doesn't seem much like the cities out there, we have a merry and busy town despite being a small island."

As they listened to Kallor's explanations on Valkyrie's historical background, the people, and the cultures, they were marveled at the scenery of the town.

The town was indeed kind of lagged behind in terms of technology and modernity. But it was so peaceful and harmonious as if they were being traveled back in time, not just to the prewar era, but it was like a few hundreds years back.

The building were built in bricks or stones. The road was paved with smooth flat stones. The street was filled with multiple little shops in tents, selling all kind of goods. Some were selling fruits, some were selling clothes, some were selling elixir...Children chasing each other, giggling in their games. While men and women visiting the tents, purchasing goods to tick off their grocery lists. Even their clothing was of the 1800s fashion. The sun crept over the buildings, shining warm rays that form a picture of serenity of the town.

It was not how ordinary this scene was that shook them. It's the peacefulness of the atmosphere that shook them. All the places that they had been to so far, were full of dirt, pollution, violence and inhumanity. They couldn't believe their eyes that such a place like Valkyrie still exist in the middle of the dark world that they were living in right now. They can't help but gasped at the view.

"Wow...H-how can this be?"  
Seungmin asked in awe.

"What do you mean?"  
Kallor turned his head to Seungmin.

"I mean. You know how crazy is the world outside? How did you preserve the beauty right here?"

"Aha. We need to thank Deux for that. They're the one who placed the barrier that protects Valkyrie. I'm sure you'd have seen the illuminating barrier as your ship sailed closer to the pier."

"Yea, the one in the mustard yellowish color barrier!"  
Jisung replied quickly.

"Yes, that's the one. No external force can penetrate through it unless we acknowledge you as our guests. It's kind of an ancient protective charm for us that's long protected us, even through the disastrous war."

"Wait a sec, you said it's like an ancient charm?"  
Jeongin asked?

"Yeah. What's wrong?"

"Does it mean that it's been cast even way before the war?"

"Yeah-? It's believed that the Deux cast it 200 years ago and the barrier is maintained by the descendants of the Deux now."

The boys looked at each other in disbelief. There were even casting spell long before vector is a thing. Why did they never know about this until now. This meant that some of the supernatural items or power in this world right now might be something that has been long existed way before the arrival of vector or maybe vector has already long existed way before the war. This is a bonus information for them.

"Are Oneux the Deux you're talking about?"  
Bang Chan asked to get more information about the political side of Valkyrie.

"Huh? No. Deux is different from the system that's leading us. Deux are more like our ancestors. We respect them as our protective guardian, in another word, they are like our God. While Oneux is the governing system that volunteered to lead us in the past."  
Kallor explained as they continued walking through the street.

"In the past? What do you mean? Oneus is no longer the governing system?"  
Jeongin caught the important point.

"Actually, I'm not too sure about what happened. It's just yesterday, and from the rumors of it, there'd been a power struggle. They kinda came to a peaceful agreement in the end which allowed another group to take over the authority from Oneus without a physical fight. Which is why the town is still as peaceful as yesterday. And I'll only know more of the details after tonight's meeting with the system."

"I see."

The boys were a bit nervous and disappointed as they just found out a potential risk factor on their plan. As they were feeling uncertain, they came to a stop in front of a nice, cozy chalet.

"Here we are. You'll be staying here for your time on Valkyrie. Enjoy your time here. You can have your meals at the dining hall in the common area on the ground floor, which Luna will show you later. Any more questions?"

"N-no, thank-"

"Hey! where's Sam, Han and Lewis?"  
Seungmin suddenly realized the missing trio as he felt the group was a little too quiet without the noisy ones.

"Oh, it's alright. They went around the street with Jayme. I think they'll enjoy the shopping. Jayme will guide them back to the chalet later on."  
Kallor explained to the anxious group.

"For goodness sake. Can't they just stay put for the time being?"  
Minho rolled his eyes at the trio who only cared about having fun.

"Let's chill inside. Let the kids be. It's not like they're having this much fun all the time. Thank you, Kallor. We will enjoy the time on Valkyrie. And for the performance I told J earlier-"

"Oh Chris, that can wait. Have a good night rest first. I will see you tomorrow evening to discuss about that with you."

"That sounds great. I'll see you then."

"Right. Ollafi will be stationed here along with Luna. Let them know if you need anything. Well then, I will take my leave now."  
Kallor bid them farewell as he left with Ryke.

"Hmm, don't ya think that guy called Ryke is kinda cold and scary?"  
Felix asked as the duo left them.

"You mean Ryke? Oh, he's been a quiet but hardworking one. He just doesn't like to talk much but he's a very compassionate guy. You'll know when you get to know him better."  
Luna explained to the guests.

She knew what they meant. Ryke was a slender guy with his head shaved bald. His skull was covered with bold tattoos. On top of that, he was only observing without a word. This impression can be interpreted by others as "scary". While Ollafi was a very cheerful looking guy. He was chubby with an average height, and he was always smiling. He gave out an easy going vibe to the others. While Luna was a tanned young lady. She was very caring, always attentive to the guests, asking if they needed more refreshment and making sure that none of their questions were left unanswered by constantly reminding Kallor when he missed some of them. Overall, their first day experience was quite nice and felt like they were welcomed.

"Sky?"  
Jeongin noticed that Seungmin did not follow them into the chalet.

"I, uh. I think I'll find them in the street."

"Do you know the way? How about Ollafi will go with you in case you're lost?"  
Luna offered while Ollafi nodded in agreement.

Although the town was small, the layout of the structures and buildings can be confusing with most of them being identical. Seungmin agreed to it and left with Ollafi.

"C'mon. I'll show you the rooms. As Kallor mentioned before, the ground floor is the common area for all residents of the chalet. There're kitchen and rooms for the staff, dinning hall and the living room are places where you can spend time with the other residents. The second floor has 5 rooms in total. Two of them will be yours. And the top floor is the study room which is open for the residents to read and study with the books and other reading materials that we've been collecting until today. This is your room and here's the keys."  
Luna had showed them around and left to prepare lunch after they had thanked her.

Their rooms are located right at the back of the floor, far away from the stairs. The rooms are facing each other on opposite sides.

"Great, how are we splitting the room?"  
Felix asked with the four of them standing in between of the two rooms.

"Do you guys have any preference?"  
Bang Chan asked.

"No, but I have a suggestion."  
Minho voiced up.  
"We can stay in a room as we're the main planners. It's easier for us to discuss anything anyway. And we can switch room anytime later if they want."

"Sounds good to me. We'll leave the four in a room then. Let's head in."

On the street...

_"This place is really amazing. If only we can stay here forever...It's like a dream..."_

As he was mesmerized by the town, Seungmin was imagining a future where Hyunjin, Woojin, Yeji and himself can laugh together and without the need to worry about anything else.

"You must be really close to your friends for worrying about them even though they're three grown up boys."  
Ollafi said as he led the boy through the street.

"Y-yeah. They just grown up on the outside but still like kids inside."

"Hohoho, only true friends act this way."

"True friends? Yea, maybe."  
Seungmin was still unsure if he can count on the others as true friends. But Hyunjin was definitely a friend that he needed to protect at all cost. As they were walking closer the the busiest part of the street, Seungmin heard a familiar laughter.

"Hahaha, what's this. Oh my god! This is so funny! Look at this Han."

"What the heck is this? It springs out like this. Hahahah Lewis isn't this like you?"

"Shut up! How can I look like the pig!"

"Hahahha, but it's cute like you."

"Right? I told you so! Hahahah..."

The trio were laughing, hitting each other while having fun playing a pig-in-the-box toy that will pop up when you open the lid and a cute little pig will make a different expression on each time it springs up.

"Oh, there they are."  
Ollafi announced.

Seungmin did not respond right away. There was a bitter moment in his heart as he looked at the trio having fun like any other friends would. He felt a hint of betrayal. He knew Hyunjin since they were children and now he was playing with the two who they have just met like a day ago. He knew that he was the one telling him to work together, but as colleagues, not as friends. He has been so nervous and exhausted all the time, still contemplating whether he had chosen the right path to trust these guys while Hyunjin just dive straight to being friends with them, without any hesitation. Even though deep down he knew that it was not Hyunjin's fault, he still felt mad at him. He felt like he was the only one that was carrying all the burden by himself while Hyunjin just enjoy the moment without a care of the risks. Although he shouldn't felt this way, he can't help but feeling a mix of jealousy and unfairness. This is the internal conflict that he couldn't resolve by himself, at least not at this moment.

"Jayme, I'll pass on this kiddo with you. I need to be back at the chalet."

Jayme turned around to meet Ollafi and Seungmin before nodding.

Hyunjin saw Seungmin and approached his friend with the toy in his hand.  
"Oh, Sky! C'mere. Look at this it's interesting isn't it? Han and I think that it looks like Lewis. What do you thin-"

"Yah! I said it's not like me!"

"But it's so so cute!"  
Hyunjin cooed.

"R-really? Then I think we do look alike then, hehe."  
Changbin posed by putting his chin on his palms, acting cute for Hyunjin.

Seungmin was the only one feeling uncomfortable among the laughter.  
"I think I'll head back to the chalet first. See ya."  
He turned and sprinted off after pushing away the toy that Hyunjin was holding in front of him.

"Huh? W-wait!"  
Hyunjin handed over the toy to Changbin before running after Seungmin.

"Hey! Don't get lost!"  
Changbin shouted after them but they did not hear it. He looked at them worriedly with Han putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Should we get this toy to show to the others?"  
Jisung suggested out of the blue.

Changbin looked at him with an arched brow before giving him a smile.  
"Jayme, how do we buy stuff over here?"

"Did you see the notice board in front of each tent? That's the things they want. You can use those listed things to trade for the things that you want."

"So, it's like a barter system!"  
Jisung exclaimed in excitement.  
"But how do we get these items?"  
He said as he examined the board.

{Trade these with me:  
#Riege #Cotre #Dimes #Ruby #Hare #Ghoul's nose}

"Are they a witch? And I only recognize 3 of those items if the dimes is what I think it is."  
Jisung was confused at the unfamiliar items that are listed.

"A Riege, in your word, it's a ring. Cotre is an elixir that's pretty common in Valkyrie. Cotre can be created by the alchemists. And the dimes we refer to sorcerer stones that were the size of a dime. Ruby and hare are what you think they're while Ghoul's nose is what the words literally mean."

"Hmm I see. Wait, what?! Ghoul's nose? You got ghoul here?!"  
Jisung thought Jayme was just joking at first but he couldn't find any hint of humor on Jayme's face.

"Yes, we do. They started to appear since post-war which we speculate that their existence has something to do with the war. Which is why we have curfew hours on Valkyrie. I hope you guys paid attention to these important rules when Kallor had spoken earlier. The ghouls are the strongest at night. You guys should never step into the woods especially during the dawn and dusk as those time the energy in this world is pretty unstable, other dimensions were easier to overlap with ours. It's rumored that people had accidentally crossed into the ghouls territory in the past. And those who survived after the incident never live past 3 days, as if they're cursed. Just to remind you, in Valkyrie, we have less daylight with later sunrise and earlier sunset. "

Jisung and Changbin gulped in nervousness. Then they exchanged gaze at each other.  
"Let's go back before dusk then. I'm scared. Jayme, can we borrow one of the items from you? We'll pay you back."  
Jisung really wanted that pig-in-the-box while Changbin just rolled his eyes.

At a quieter place...

There was a green field topped with tiny spots of colorful flowers. There was a little pond with a small stream tailing to the woods direction. Seungmin dashed through the field and stopped in front of the pond before squatting down in front of it, covering his face with his hands.

"Sigh. What am I doing? Why am I acting like a child who yearns for attention?"

"Seungmin!"  
He turned around and met Hyunjin who was panting from the running.  
"Hah-ha... ha-hha"

"Sigh, can you please leave me alone?"

"Seungmin, Minnie, please. Please talk to me. If I'd done something wrong, please tell me so that I'd know."  
Hyunjin squatted next to Seungmin, looking at the tadpoles that were surrounding a small golden fish in the pond. He picked one of the long thin weed around the pond and dipped the tip into the pond, leading the fish with a fake bait.

"Jinnie, it's, it's not you. It's just me. I-I need some time. I'll figure it ou-"

"Seungmin, do you remember that time when I was crying on my own when we're younger? I even told you to leave me alone and throwing stuff at you when you approached me. But you did not retreat. You waited patiently for me to calm down before approaching me again. Then, you just sat beside me. I still remember that moment when I'm no longer alone during the bad times. Although you just stay with me for the whole night without speaking a word, I still felt comforted with just your presence."

Seungmin looked at hyunjin's side profile as he talked about their first meeting as children. He never thought that Hyunjin still remember everything so well when he did nothing much. Then Hyunjin turned his head to faced him.

"Now, I've grown up. I want to be a friend that you can rely on too. I don't want to be the one that's always on the receiving end anymore. I truly hope that you can trust me a little better and be more open to me just like how much I trust you. As much as you've been learning about me all these times, I want to learn more about you too. I want to know what do you think, how do you feel, and I wanna help if I can."

Seungmin opened his mouth but closed it again, dropping his gaze to the ground. He was touched by Hyunjin's words and was holding back his tears. He felt so ashamed that he was getting mad at this innocent kid just a moment ago. While Hyunjin has always valued their friendship more than anything else.

"You don't have to tell me anything now. I hope you can do it at your own pace without feeling forced. I just want you to know that I'm here to listen whenever you're ready to talk."  
Hyunjin said before giving the brightest smile to Seungmin. He patted his best friend's back before turning back to the pond, playing with the fish.

"Thank you, Jinnie."  
Seungmin sighed in relief before turning his attention to the pond too. The fish was swimming around in circle, following Hyunjin's guide, with the tadpoles following it around as if they were playing a chasing game.

"You used to love playing with water. I remember you swimming in the big fish pond right in front of your house."

Hyunjin paused at Seungmin's words, "Is it? I can't remember it."

"Yeah. And you always got scolded by your fa-"  
Seungmin noticed a frown on Hyunjin's face.  
"Sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned about him."

"No, it's alright. He's part of my past too. I just hope that I'd remember my younger childhood, when I first met you, Woojin and Yeji. It's a pity...I hope I won't lose anymore of my memory."

Seungmin looked at Hyunjin with a half worried half guilty expression. He had something to say but did not have the courage to bring it up. The two fell back to silence, just looking at the pond, listening to the sound of the nature.

The blue sky turned pinkish-orange with the sunset. The birds are chirping nearby with the occasional hooting of the nocturnal animals. The warm breeze gently blew at the two boys who were squatting beside the pond. The boys then proceed to follow the golden fish that was swimming along the stream, into the woods. The time passed quickly as they were absorbed in the peaceful time in the nature that they had long desired for.

🎵 Covered by darkness  
The red sun  
Is losing its light and  
spreading into the sunset 🎶

<Twilight> by Oneus

Hyunjin shivered as the temperature dropped sharply in the woods. Seungmin took off his outer jacket to cover Hyunjin's shivering body.

"Erm, thanks. Seungmin, I think we should head back now. The others must be worried if we're not back before it's dark."

"Yeah, let's go. We can just follow back th-"

They turned around but there was no more stream in sight that they can follow back to the pond outside of the woods.

"Se-Seungmin? What's going on? H-how can the stream gone. But we followed the fi-"  
Hyunjin couldn't believe his eyes. The gold fish and the stream were just there a moment ago but both were vanished now. It's as if his eye were playing tricks on him. He rubbed his eyes but the scene did not change. The ground was hard cold and dry without a hint of a drop of water.  
"Seungmin, please tell me I'm not the only one who finds this strange."

"No, you're not."  
Seungmin's grip on Hyunjin tightened.  
"Hey, I think we can just follow back in the direction where we came from. It should be the same even without the stream, r-right?"  
Seungmin tried to sound optimistic but his nervous tone had betrayed him.

"Y-yeah. Let's go."

Soon, their vision was limited by the slowly gathered thick fog. The air was getting colder and dense. It was getting harder to breathe especially when their clothing were not prepared for the cold night. Hyunjin started to struggle with the pace with the constant heavy breathing. Seungmin tried to slow down and hugged him, in hope to support him while warming him up. Hyunjin had always has a delicate body. He can easily caught a cold especially during the winter. Which was why they had always kept Hyunjin indoor during the winter, no mater how much Hyunjin loves the snow or the nature. Now, it was even worse with Hyunjin not being completely recovered from the previous assaults.

Seungmin felt sorry just by looking at Hyunjin's labored breathing at every step he had taken.  
"Hey, we're almost there. Please stay with me, kay?"  
Seungmin couldn't imagine the worst scenario if Hyunjin had fainted in the woods.

"Y-ye-aa"  
Hyunjin's voiced started to crack and slurred the words.

🎵 Even the beautiful trees and  
flowers wither  
Even any fierce animal  
holds its breath 🎶

They had been walking like forever. They had lost track of the time as the woods turned dark suddenly. They were hungry and parched. The fogs were too thick for them to inspect their surroundings. If they were attacked by the wild animals right now, they will be totally defenseless. Seungmin perked his ears and kept himself on high alert, hoping to take in as much sensory information as he can. Deep down, they both know that they were lost. The thing that they feared the most was not because they were lost but because they were uncertain of this unfamiliar place, starting with the vanishing stream, they couldn't shake off this ominous feeling.

Suddenly, Seungmin spotted a really faint light in his vision.  
"Hyunjin, I think we found a house. It'll get better. Please stay with me for a little longer!"

"Mhmm..."  
Hyunjin hummed with his eyes closed.

At this point, it's more like Seungmin dragging Hyunjin towards the lights.

🎵 On the pitch dark earth  
that is frozen  
The only light in the world 🎶

Knock! Knock!

"Hey! Is anybody there! Please open! My friend needs help!"

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Seungmin's impatient consecutively knocking got the attention of the residents inside. There was some shuffling sound before the door was clicked open. A blonde hair guy was standing on the entrance with an uninterested expression on his face.

"Yes? How can I help you?"

"Er, thank you for opening the door. Can we stay in the house for a night, please?"  
Seungmin looked at the unconscious Hyunjin.  
"My friend doesn't look that well and we won't survive the cold night in the wild."

The blonde guy turned to Hyunjin then back to Seungmin.  
"What are you guys doing in the woods this late?"  
He squinted at them.

"Who's that? Oh-ho~ We have guests. You must be freezing in that clothes! Come in quickly! Come, come!"  
Before Seungmin can say anything, another guy appeared behind of the blonde guy, urging him to get in the house.

"Th-thank you so much!"

Hyunjin was brought to a cozy bedroom and was laid on a bed, covered with thick quilted blanket to keep him warm. He was left in the room to recover. They gave warmer clothes to Seungmin as they sat around the fireplace. The guy who welcomed them gave him some hot stew as well.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. How can you let them stand outside for so long when they're shaking in the cold!"  
The nice guy questioned the blonde guy.

"What? I'm only being cautious. Who goes around the woods at night except..."  
The blonde guy left the sentence hanging.  
"Anyway, I wouldn't left these idiots outside if I'd known they're just kids. By the way, I'm Xion."  
He extended a hand towards Sengmin, who accepted the handshake.

"I'm Sky and my friend's Sam."

"Hi, Sky. I'm Seoho."  
The kind guy introduced himself.

After that, each of them introduced themselves to Seungmin. There were six of them in the house besides Seungmin and Hyunjin. Seungmin was still cautious about them as their appearance did not spell out "commoners". Seungmin just hope that they did not get in contact with any of the political parties of Valkyrie as he remembered there was just a power exchange as of yesterday. It will be a bad timing to meet any of them on the first day without the others.

"Erm, we've just arrived today. If it's alright, may I know what do you guys do for a living? I mean here's pretty far away from the town and it's pretty secluded too."

"Oh? So you're a tourist. That explains a lot of why you're wandering in the woods at night. Well, about us. Shall we tell him, boys?"  
Seoho asked as the others looked at Seungmin.

"We're Oneus and we used to govern Valkyrie." 

Seungmin gulped at their answer. This is the worst.

Back at the chalet...

"Guys! Guys! Come out and look at this!"  
Jisung knocked at the door.

Click.

"Wha-"

"Look! Isn't this toy is Changbin? Hahahahaha-"

"That's- wait, why are you two alone? Where's Seungmin and Hyunjin?"  
Bang Chan asked.

"What da ya mean? I thought they came back first!"  
Changbin rushed into the room but there were only Minho, Felix and Jeongin inside.  
"What da f-"

"Where did they left!"  
Bang Chan questioned Jisung with his voice slightly raised.

"Th-they separate from us on the street. We thought they're h-heading back..."

"What's going on?"  
Jeongin asked the trio.

"They lost Seungmin and Hyunjin. Fuck! It gotta be the first day!"  
Bang Chan headed back to the room and reappeared at the door with his jacket, with a gun and a knife strapped to his waist, while Minho followed him out.  
"I'll get Ollafi with Minho. We'll try to track them back."

"Wait! I'm coming with you. In case you need a medic."  
Changbin rushed out with his first aid kit.

"Alright. Jeongin, let us know if they're back here."

"Got it. Be careful."  
Jeongin looked at the trio rushed down the stairs before closing shut the door.  
 _"Please be safe,"_ He prayed silently.

REVEAL Arc Begins...

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: This is another long chapter. And the first arc of this story will be the REVEAL arc which comprised of another few more chapters. The whole arc will take place at Valkyrie. In between, I'll insert a few filler chapters regarding some of the characters' background story. Hope you guys will enjoy it. Stay tuned.


	7. In REVEAL

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *WARNING!!! GRAPHIC CONTENT!!!*
> 
> If you have a faint heart, please prepare yourself before reading.

"Are they lost? Where did they go?"  
Changbin was worried about the two and was a little anxious. It's already late and the streets looked eerily quiet, with the smokey red half moon hanging above their heads.

"Do you guys have any idea where they could have been?"  
Ollafi asked the trio.

"No, we have no idea either. It's our first day stepping on this island. And we know no one except you guys."  
Bang Chan explained before turning to Minho.  
"Hey Lee Know, did you manage to pinpoint his location?"

The bond contract that Minho held allows a sponsor to summon the sponsee, this is to allow the sponsor being able to protect the sponsee at times of unplanned difficulties and at the same time, to keep track of the sponsee. 

To _honour_ the bond contract, the sponsor and the sponsee will each need to offer a strand of their hair, a drop of their blood to the scroll, and recite the phrase of honorship in the end. This will complete the seal of the contract between the sponsor and the sponsee. And the full benefits and functions of the contract will last for the period of time when it's in effect.

_Absolute summon,_ a function of an honoured contract, allows the sponsor to pinpoint the exact location of the sponsee or the sponsor can force the sponsee to be transferred to his/her exact location, with/without consent. The downside of this function is the limitation of a single use of forced transfer per day as it has a long cooling period. And when using forced transfer, the time taken for the transfer is proportional to the distance in between the sponsor and sponsee. This means that a transfer between two opposite ends of a state (e.g. Perth, Australia) might take about 10 minutes while a transfer between Perth and Queensland might take about 30 minutes. It'll be faster than any other types of transportations but it's not instant like teleportation. A sponsor should consider about the time transfer when planning for the sponsee's protection. While the tracking of location can be used unconditionally.

"I'm trying but it looks like he's unconscious as the location is pretty vague. Sigh, should've honour this contract earlier as he's now a half-fledged sponsee, I can't conduct the absolute summon to locate him, unless he answer my call. Wait, the contract is showing a rough map. Ollafi, can you lead us here?"

Ollafi examined the target area on the contract and his face turned solemn.   
"This is the Forest of Caligo, which is also the place where the intersection of dimensions located at, where the ghouls are most active. Right now, the whole area is quite dangerous as the ghoul are stronger at night with the clear red moon tonight. We must be extra careful when we enter the forest. Please be really quiet and vigilant. Let's hope that they aren't close to the intersection."

The three of them were anxious and nervous as this will be their first time to meet a ghoul in real life, if they were "lucky" enough. And they prayed silently that the two did not encounter any of it.

"The Forest of Caligo encompasses an area as wide as 400 square kilometre."  
Changbin cursed at that figure. They might never get to find them tonight in an area this wide.  
"And with the overlapping dimensions, the area we need to cover is likely to be larger than the original area. I truly hope that they're still in our dimension, or else, it'll be tricky."  
The three of them fell silence. They had no idea how to react to this news and this unfamiliar situation. This is their first time to meeting ghoul, their first time to experience different dimensions. Now they really wish all of these are just a game or a nightmare that they can just log off and return to their lives. Except that all of these are their reality and they can't just revive at default checkpoints, when they die, they die for real.

"What happens if they crossed over to another dimension?"  
Bang Chan asked.

"Sigh, then they will need to return to this dimension through the correct intersection point before sunrise, or they'll be trapped in another dimension until it's sunset again and when they find the intersection to return."

"They're still in this dimension. If they're not, the map shouldn't be showing us their location when we're located in different dimensions."  
Minho said as he examined the map again.

"A very good point. Then, shall we go?"  
Ollafi suggested to them.

"Wait, one last question. How do we avoid the intersections?"  
Bang Chan asked. 

"I can recognise the original forest. You'll feel some places were blended in awkwardly with the original forest, and that's where the intersection lies."

"Ok, we'll follow your lead then."  
Bang Chan can only trust Ollafi and his two friends for tonight. 

"I'll keep on summoning him, just in case he answers."  
Minho kept on reciting the summoning spell as they followed Ollafi to the Forest of Caligo.

Forest of Caligo...

"Wait, you're telling me that they're here in this eerie woods?"  
Changbin had felt his hairs standing on his skin as soon as they stepped into the woods. The air turned damp and cold in the forest. The nocturnal beasts were fully awake now. The deep hooting sounds, the howling of the wolves along with the wind can be heard clearly.

"Shh, please be quiet. Don't attract useless attention to our direction."  
Ollafi whispered to Changbin and all of them fell silence, and were only whispering softly in short sentences when they really need to. For most of the times, they just used hand signals. They followed Ollafi close behind as Ollafi pointed out the intersections. They wouldn't have recognised any of them if Ollafi wasn't there. Some of them were trees that seemed to be a little off with their awkward position on the ground. But most of them can be easily overlooked, such as a patch of clovers with one of them having a single violet leaf, among the normal bunch.

Snap!

All of them stopped abruptly at the sound of a breaking twig. Someone had accidentally stepped on it. They instantly heighten their senses, trying to pick up any foreign sound apart from their own breathing and the consistent white noise from the nature.

After a good 30 seconds of freezing in frame, they started moving but paused again when they heard a sound in distant.

Swoosh-

It sounded like a metal blade slicing through the wind towards their direction. As the seconds passed by, the sound turned into a loud high-pitched whistle as it was closing the distance between them. They turned to the direction of the source. Ollafi was squinting to see the target when he suddenly shout in a whisper to them.

"Run! It's the ghoul!"

They dashed away from the sound, charging forward at their full speed. They knew that they would never outrun the ghouls when they had reached their limits but the sound was getting louder and closer. 

"To the tree hollow!"  
Ollafi directed them. Each of them disappeared into the gigantic dark tree bark before Ollafi cast a hiding spell over the entrance. They were holding their breaths as Ollafi signaled them to stay quiet. They observed the situation outside in dead silence as the white noise of their surrounding died down as well.

Suddenly, the whistling stopped and it was replaced by a loud "thud". Two shadows were approaching them. Suddenly, a pair of red eyes appeared right in front of them. 

They couldn't make out the remaining face of the ghoul as only two red slits were seen on the dark shadow, but it was already very intimidating to them. They remained quiet as the the eyes scanned the tree hollow, which should appeared as "empty" in the eyes of the ghoul.

"Yelp-"

Bang Chan covered Changbin's mouth tightly as he was shocked from the sudden widely open eye in front of them. None of them dared to breathe, even their hearts seemed to have stopped beating as the eye closing in on them, as if the ghoul was staring straight at them.

But the eye suddenly disappeared from view. The two shadows turned to another direction sharply, as if there was something else distracted them. Then, they were gone with the piercing whistling sound. 

Nobody moved in the dark until a few minutes had passed, only then they exhaled the breath they had been holding in. Bang Chan lowered his hand while Changbin was still frozen in shock. Minho wiped the cold sweats from his forehead while Ollafi checked the surrounding again before removing the spell. 

"Wow, we're almost dead. How can something be so scary?"  
Minho exclaimed quietly.

"That's the noble ghouls."  
Ollafi replied as they regained their composure.

"Noble? Even ghouls have ranks?"  
Minho couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes. There are general ghouls which just aimlessly attack and feed on humans on their survival instinct. But there are also noble ghouls like those two, which are more intelligent and powerful, but they usually act in small groups. And they are also elite ghouls which are the highest rank among the ghouls. Those are the most dangerous ones as they can control and oppress the ghouls that are lower in ranks. The elite ghouls are believed to be the ones that planned the targeted attacks beyond the Forest of Caligo."  
Ollafi whispered to them.

"You mean the ghouls aren't restricted to this forest?"  
Bang Chan asked.

"Of course not. The sun will weaken their strength greatly but as long as they return to their territory before sunrise, they will survive. But we will stand no chance against them if they launch an attack in town at night. Unless the-"

Ollafi was cut short by the shrieking sound from where the ghouls had left to.

"What now?"  
Minho was annoyed with the constant sudden surprises and shocks.

"It's the ghouls. I think they were attacked."

"Great- Wait, you mean they are being attacked?"

"Yes."

"But you said they are stronger."

"The attacker must be stronger..."

They fell in silence again. They can't imagine a stronger being than the ghouls they had just encountered earlier. They didn't even know if the attacker was their ally or foe.

"Let's focus on finding your friends first. I'll let Kallor know about our situation. This is getting dangerous with an unknown force with us in the forest."  
Ollafi chanted some words and a crow appeared on his hand before soaring to the sky and disappeared in the town's direction.

They resumed their search while being on high alert, searching for hints of the unknown attacker. As they reached the area marked on the map, the location was getting more precise, decreasing in size with the marking.

"I think we're closer to them now."  
Minho said as he looked at the contract.

"That's good. Hey, you alright?"  
Bang Chan was concerned about Changbin who was quiet since their encounter with ghouls.

"Y-yeah. I'm alright. Just, I just can't believe how scary it is. Now, I can't imagine how the two must have felt, alone in the woods."

"Don't worry. We'll find them..safe and sound."  
Bang Chan tried to sound optimistic, but deep down, all of them know the current circumstances are unfavourable to them.

Back in the club...

Everything was burnt down to the ground. Before they arrived, Woojin had contacted with his father, who had dispatched the exterminate unit to clear off all the scavengers around the club. The aftermath of all of the burning, fightings, and extermination, resulted in the whole place being flattened to the core with the remaining burnt smell being left in the air.

"Oh my...nothing's left..."  
Yeji fell down on her knees.

Woojin walked around the shambles, looking for any clues that might be left by Seungmin or Hyunjin, or any clues to their survival.

He was just about to leave when he stopped at the golden bracelet that he had given to Hyunjin earlier to wish him luck. It was lying on the ground, hidden in the ashes. He swept away the ashes and picked it up, then touched the bracelet with the necklace he's wearing on his neck. A strip of films of the whole event when the club was burning was revealed before him until the bracelet slipped off as it hit the door frame as Hyunjin was being carried away, then the films disappeared. He sighed in relief. At least they were both alive.

"Yeji."  
He walked to the crying girl and showed her the bracelet.

"Huh? Isn't that part of your vector?"

"Yes. It shows that Hyunjin and Seungmin are alive."

"Really!? Oh thank you! Thank you for being alive."  
She gratefully prayed.

"But they were taken by another group."

"Gasp! Who are they?"

"I have no idea, but I know one of them. It's Lee Minho's sidekick. He's one of our regulars."

"Where are they bringing them?"

"That's what we need to find out. I'll put up a search notice for them. Information will start flowing in once people know that they'll be rewarded for providing reliable intel to us."

"I'll help!"

"Sure. Let's go to the headquarter now."

Woojin didn't tell Yeji about what had actually happened. But he knew what Desmond did and he will kill him someday. And he also kinda guessed the motive of someone like Lee Minho had in mind when his group saved Hyunjin. He will take his friends back even if it means that he have to ask for his father's help or if he needed to kill.

_"Wait for me..."_

In a room...

"Hyunjin...Hyunjin...jin..."

Hyunjin can hear someone was calling out to him in a distant but he felt as if he was in a blurred state. Everything moved past him rather fast, as if he was in a fast-forwarded movie. Suddenly, his surrounding stopped changing, and he found himself in a familiar place.

It was his house, the one he used to live with Yeji and their father. The most precious memory of his, and also the start of his nightmare. 

Their house looked really modern with the contemporary architectural design. It was a mansion filled with advanced technologies. Their father was a top-notch scientist, who was working closely with the government, and also with Woojin's father in a project called "Vector".

He was drifted into the house. The interior looked exactly the same as when he left the house. Suddenly, he heard a giggling sound and he turned around to see a young girl with a ponytail skipping around the house towards the patio, followed by a young boy.

It was his younger self and Yeji.

"Hey, Hyunjin, look at the stars in the sky, aren't they pretty?"

"Yeah, they're sparkly."

"Will you pick them for me?"

"Sure."

The little boy stretched his little arm towards the sky and gripped onto the stars and withdrew. He ran towards the girl and open his hand but he frowned as he stared at his empty hand.

Hyunjin chuckled at his younger self before he was immersed in their childhood again. _"Ah, this was a part of the memory that I'd lost..."_

"Hahaha. You can't reach the stars, you silly. They're really far away from us."

"Are they?"

"Yeah. They're in the other part of the universe. We're just a really really really small dot in this world."

"There are more things out there in the universe?"

"Of course. What we're seeing right now is just a small part of the world. Most of us can't even leave Earth. That's how we are still oblivion to lots of unknown beings beyond our little world."

"Will we be able to meet them? Will we ever get to touch the stars?"

"Who knows. One day we might. Maybe after a few hundreds times of reincarnations..."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Nothing. You'll understand when you're older. People always say that when we die, we'll become the stars in the sky."

"Really?"

"I don't know. But I think it's silly. If that's the case, wouldn't the night sky be as bright as the day? There are millions of people dying everyday..."

"Oh..."

"I'm just joking, you silly! Hahaha, we don't need to worry about that. We can't really find out anyway, unless...we're dead."  
Yeji spoke the last two words so softly that the little boy couldn't hear it.

Hyunjin missed the moments when they were still so young and had always been fantasising about things that are beyond their reach. The scene was suddenly switched to their father's lab in the basement. The little boy was wearing a metallic helmet attached with multiple cables. He was strapped to a hospital cot. It seemed like he had been lying unconscious on a drip for a period of time. 

The little girl was in tears this time and she was screaming out her lungs at the father.

"No! I dun wan to! He's my little brother! No!"

"Yeji, this is the only way for the project to be successful-"

"I don't care! Wah----sob... I want Hyunjin back..."

"Enough! A child like you who is lacking, this is why we need Hyunjin. Don't you get it? You're the reason Hyunjin needs to go through this shit. Now, scram!"

"Wh-what? No-"

Little Yeji was dragged out of the room by the staff as she cried.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah."  
There was another man in a lab coat standing beside the father. 

"Kim, let's do this."

When Mr Kim turned around, Hyunjin was in shock, he was Woojin's father. The father walked to the control panel on a machine that was linked to the helmet via those cables. Although Hyunjin couldn't remember what had happened next, he felt a great fear rushed through him as his father was starting up a program on the machine.

Vrrrrr!

"NO!"

Hyunjin yelled as he launched himself towards the little boy when the scene before him blasted in an explosion and he was blacked out.

The house in the woods....

"So, what are you going to do now our little friend, Sky?"

"I-"

Boom!

There was an intense energy surge in the upper floor suddenly which had caused an explosion in the house. All of them looked towards upstairs. 

"What the-"

Seungmin rushed up the collapsing stairs to Hyunjin's room before Seoho can finish his sentence.

"Hyunjin!"

Seungmin couldn't believe his eyes at the scene he was seeing. Hyunjin was floating in the air, being enveloped in a ball of pure vector with a 2-metre radius that wouldn't let him approach Hyunjin.

The others rushed behind him and marveled at that scene.

"Wow, what's this? Do you mind explaining to us?"  
Ravn, the father figure of Oneus, was the first to speak.

Suddenly, they can hear the multiple screeching and howlings outside. Xion peeked out at the window and was shocked by what he saw.

"Fuck. The ghouls are outside!"

"Calm down, it's not our fir-"

"Look out there!"

All ranks of ghouls, including the elites had surrounded the house, drawn in by the amount of energy radiating from their location.

"We're so- fucked up"  
Keonhee said in shock.

Seungmin gulped at the ghouls as it was his first time seeing one- no, it's a group of them.

Not Far Away...

"What was that?"  
Bang Chan asked.

"Can you feel that? It's the existence of a powerful vector."  
Changbin felt the sudden rush of energy wave hitting him when the explosion occurred. 

Screech! 

The ground rumbled and the air was filled with whistling sounds.

"What the hec-"  
Minho couldn't finish his sentence. 

"It's the ghouls. This can't be happening. All the ghouls were heading towards that explosion-"  
Ollafi said when he was interrupted by Minho.

"Hey! I got the exact location of him! It's right...there..."  
Minho's excitement died down quickly as he realised he was pointing towards the direction where all the ghouls had gathered at by now, while the others watched in horror.

"We don't have time! Hurry!"  
Bang Chan ran towards the direction followed by the other three.

When they reached the compound of the house, things were already chaotic. The dark beings were already attacking each other.

"Why are they fighting among themselves?"  
Bang Chan asked.

"I'm not sure-"

"Hey! Chris! We need help up here!"

They looked up at the second floor of the crumbling house and they saw Seungmin. They were about to reply when they noticed their surrounding was a little quiet now. As they looked back down on the ground, they realised all the ghouls had stopped fighting and were looking at them four now.

"Shit."

REVEAL Arc TBC...

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: This is a shorter chapter focusing on introducing the ghouls. The next chapter is likely to be a filler chapter on Hyunjin's lost childhood memory which is elaborated from this chapter, or it could be another chapter following the main plot. I will see which will fit after this one better. Hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned.


	8. A Sudden Notice !!!

Some chapters cover and images were re-edited due to recent controversy and scandal. I can't really change the character in my story, but I'll refrain from using any photo/images of him. Please let me know if I've missed out any of it from the published chapters so far. 

This story is supposed to focus on the 8 SKZ members which is why he was separated from them since the beginning. For the remaining chapters, I'll still need to include this character, but please think of it as a fictional character that's sharing the same name, not the actual person himself. I have removed his name from the tags. The main plot was already planned out a few months ago...I can't explain further regarding the plot details without spoiling the story, but one thing I can assure you is that this story, just like the book cover has shown, will only be focusing on the 8 members.

Sorry for any inconvenience/discomfort that the published chapter(s) had caused to some readers. It's alright to drop my story if it's making you uncomfortable because of the character in this fanfic. I will understand. 

Lastly, thank you for your time and understanding. Please take good care of yourself and remember to do self-care daily. 


	9. The REVEAL

At the chalet...

An explosion in distant was heard. Felix and Jisung were fast asleep. Jeongin looked up from the historical records of Valkyrie that he had borrowed from the top floor library, and walked to the window. He lightly touched the icy cold, frosted glass panel with his fingers as he scanned the forest area. There was a cloud of vague smoke lifting from the forest. He was nervous about it. Something in his heart was telling him that this is unusual, and it is related to his friends.

Kraa!

He noticed a crow flew towards the townhouse from the forest. _"It's them."_ The messenger crow had confirmed his guess. The bracelet on his wrist suddenly glowed and the particles contained in each bead hissed loudly as they vibrated vigorously. He turned his head towards the records of Valkyrie that were on his bed and thought, _"Is this the time? Will we finally be freed?"_

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The emergency bell of the town has rung. Residents were informed to stay sheltered and stay alert. Jeongin ran downstairs just to see Luna leaning over the wall beside the main door while holding a AR-15 rifle. It was a rare sight as Luna appeared to be a lady who are really good at cooking but now she was equipped with a rifle, showing a different side of her. But she greeted Jeongin as he approached her.

"Hey, you should be staying in your room. This is not the time to wander."  
Although she sounded friendly as when she had greeted them with refreshment this morning, her expression had turned cold and serious. She checked the small window at every tiny sound from outside.

"I can't sleep. It's loud with the bell. What's going on? Where's Jayme?"  
Jeongin was now beside Luna, checking the outside through the small window but he was pulled away by Luna.

"Don't stuck your face on the window. Anyone can see you from the outside."  
She reposition herself with the rifle.  
"Jayme was on call to guard the HQ just now by Kallor. Seems like it's going to be a long night."

"Is this regarding my friends, or is it something about Valkyrie?"

Luna looked at him in silence, contemplating whether to tell the truth or not.  
"Sigh...I don't know either. But my gut feeling is telling me that it's both."  
She then looked at the bloody moon on the dark night sky.  
"As you know, we have ghouls here."

"Yeah, Kallor told us about it this morning."

"Yes. But those ghouls...they have actually existed since long long ago, way before the war."

Jeongin stared at her in shock.  
"What do you mean by that? Y-you can't be meaning that those ghouls have nothing to do with vector or the war at all?"

"Of course there are some connections. But their existence on Valkyrie is not because of the war. Only very few of us knew about this. And," Luna paused while giving a long stare at Jeongin before continuing, "I think you already know more than you look. Isn't it, Jeongin?"

"Gasp! Since w-when did you know?"  
Jeongin was looking at the rifle that was pointing at him now. He stepped backwards, trying to create distance but only to be closed up by Luna stepping forward after him.

_"Damn, we're exposed!"_

The Forest of Caligo...

Screech- Screech-

As the four scanned the ground in a quick glance, they estimated at least 30 ghouls were facing them now. They really couldn't believe it. They were so scared just now by just two noble ghouls. But now, 30 of them? They really hope that giving up was an option for them.

With the light from the house, they can now see the ghouls better. All of the ghouls have red eyes and dark, foggy figure, as if someone who was wearing an overlarge black silky hooded cape. But their postures were different. Those that were crouching and with long nails were thought to be the general ghouls as they were quite conscious of the ghouls that were standing straight, and with a more slender build. Those ghouls must be the nobles. And there were a few, about three of them were just like humans in black hoodies. They have the same frightening dark red eyes and grey pale skin, but more human-like. Those must be the elites.

A huge bag was thrown to the ground in front of the four.  
"Hey, Ollafi! You still remember how to do real time combat right?"  
Seoho yelled after he had thrown that bag to them.

Ollafi opened the bag to find all kinds of weapons. A katana, a three-section staff, about 30 pieces of shuriken, and two Russian PPSh-41 submachine guns. 

"You must be kidding me! Are we in the samurai era? How are we supposed to use this!?"  
Changbin picked up a shuriken and tried aiming at a ghoul but it landed 9 feet from his target.

"... ..."

"You know what? You should stop wasting the weapons. Now, take this."  
Minho handed over one of the submachine guns to Changbin.

"B-but I've never used a machine gun before-"

"The good thing about machine guns is the firing rate. You don't really have to aim,"  
Minho said as he looked over to the wasted shuriken on the ground.  
"Just pull the trigger as those ghouls approach you. Oh, and, although you don't really need to aim, please do avoid us as best as you can."  
A nervous smirk was formed on Minho's face before he bent down to reach for the katana. He gave a few swings before giving it a nod of approval.

Bang Chan had retrieved his GLOCK 22, the pistol that was on his waist belt, and he pulled the slide to cock the gun before aiming at the ghouls, ready to fire.

Ollafi saw his gun and realised that the last submachine gun will be his to take. Ollafi was loading the gun when he noticed Changbin was struggling to hold the gun with a 71-rounds barrel loaded.  
"Hey, used this instead."  
Ollafi loaded his gun with a 35-rounds curved box magazine instead which will be easier to hold, and exchanged his with Changbin's. 

"Oh, thanks."

"You know how to reload the magazines, right?"  
Ollafi handed over another two of the 35rd magazines to Changbin.

"Err, I guess..."

Oneus jumped from the balcony and landed beside them. The five of them were wielding close combat blades while one of them was holding a bow with a quiver of arrows hung on his waist.

"Gosh, are you guys really from the Joseon dynasty? Except for the two guns, what's with all the historical weapons?" Minho facepalmed himself as he analysed their situation.

"Be grateful for having those. But don't you think it's funny how the ghouls just standing there, staring at you guys as you're loading yourself?"  
Xion questioned them.

"You're right. It is weird."  
Ollafi couldn't understand this either. But he did noticed that his ex-governor, Oneus, was being too relaxed at this situation.

"Ug plemisow us."   
Suddenly, one of the elite ghouls approached them but stopped a few metres away from where they stood, and talked. The four of them raised their weapons but Oneus was standing still.

"Er, what is he saying?"  
Minho asked.

"He said 'We promised them'."   
Xion replied.

"What? You speak their language? What did you promised them?"   
Changbin was shocked, so are the others.

"But how? I thought we never mix with them?"  
Ollafi was dumbfounded as well.

"We've been coexisting with them ever since our great great great ancestors, shouldn't at least one of us learn their language to communicate?"  
Seoho explained but did not elaborate on the promise.

"Yos wo id. Zon, hupp axalo ug wholo jed?"   
(Yes, we did. Then, why are you here now?)  
Xion started talking with that noble ghoul as others looked on, while Seoho was doing the translation for the four who couldn't understand Morsi, the ghouls language.

The ghoul turned to look at where Hyunjin and Seungmin were before replying.  
"Ug'lo goopick pit zloaxat te us."   
(You're keeping a threat to us.)

"Wo whaxavo je didoaxa oithol. Dit nud eep bilch timo sooick sust wixonemonaxa axas worr.  
(We have no idea either. It's our first time seeing such phenomenon as well.)  
Xion then turned to the four.  
"He's your friend, isn't he? Mind explaining the situation, or we might need to battle our way out."

They looked at each other before Bang Chan spoke, "We don't know either. But Lewis might be able to find something if he can check on him. He's been experimenting on vector for awhile now. So, this is in his elements."  
He gave Changbin a nudge on his shoulder.

"Y-yeah. If I can check on him now, I might figure something out."  
Changbin nodded at the suggestion. The ghoul was silent.

"Dit nud foch te axand baxach, fobelo velo kheurs axallivo."   
(It's best to act fast, before more ghouls arrive.)  
Xion told the ghoul.  
"Ug gned haxat wirr whaxappon hon ethol oritos cemo jed."   
(You know what will happen when other elites come now.)

"Fo jung. Pum caxaniz wherd dit ebb axanupp reckol."   
(Be quick. I can't hold it off any longer.)  
The ghoul returned to the group before emitting a deadly aura that pushed the lower rank ghouls back.

"Phew~ What're you waiting for? Go check on him now. We don't have time!"  
Xion turned to Changbin to urge him on.

Changbin put down the bulky gun and ran into the house. The others remained on high alert as the ghouls were facing them.

Whoosh!

Changbin was being pushed back by the ball of pure energy as he ran into the room. 

"Changbin! You must help Hyunjin. H-he, I can't get close to him."  
Seungmin was glad to see a familiar face again.

"What happened?"  
Changbin took out his modified Personal Radiation Detector and it showed a high level of radiation from that ball. He noticed that Hyunjin's hair had turned dark black again and it's longer now.

"I don't know. He lost consciousness, so we placed him on the bed. I was downstairs when we heard an explosion and then this is it."

Changbin used a Geig (a pen-like apparatus that can retrieve a small sample of particles from any types of source) to take a sample of the pure energy and insert into the Geig receiver (a small device that breaks down and analyse the properties of the sample), and a line was being displayed after a few seconds.

**{ ⟒⍀⍀⍜⍀ }**

"Damn! It can't be analysed! Why?"  
Changbin was frustrated and retake another sample. He was rushing to get things done and have a good night rest after all of these shocking incidents. He was beyond tired.

"Changbin, what if, it's just pure energy?"

"SO?"

"There's nothing else to be analysed...as it cannot be broken down any further..."

Changbin paused at his movement and turned to Seungmin.  
"My, I've known that. You're a genius, Seungmin! Thank you for reminding this idiotic me! But now, we're doom."

"Why?"

"If it's this amount of pure energy, I don't have anything with that capacity to transfer or absorb the energy to get him out. It seems like Hyunjin is the one that was maintaining the energy in this space. If we wanna get him out, we have to detach and remove the energy from him. It'll be difficult as he's constantly regulating it."

"But you must have some idea! You've been playing with vector!"

"Calm down. This is my first time seeing this, alright. Hey, what's your vector?"

"I can create protective shields."

"I see, a conjurer-vector."

Conjurer-Vector (CV) allows the wielder to create a specific type of vector-infused objects from the Vector, while Augmenter-Vector (AV) allows the wielder to strengthen the Vector itself with a layer of vector on the external or around the wielder.  
E.g. When Desmond hit the ground with a shockwave, that's an AV, his punch was infused with vector.

Notes:  
Vector: The object that is possessed by a vector.  
vector: The supernatural element/energy produced by a specific Vector.

Changbin observed the barrier then picked up a piece of broken wood and threw at it. It was repelled as soon as it touched the surface of the barrier, and both of them dodged the repelled wood.  
"Hmm~ Interesting. Whenever something is closing in at a fast pace, it's being repelled right away but when I took the sample with the Geig, it did nothing to it except that the Geig wouldn't be able to penetrate more than 1 cm from the surface."

"Does that mean we can reach Hyunjin as long as we're slowly closing in?"

"Not sure. But I think it's part of his defence mechanism. It will repel anything that are assumed to be a threat to Hyunjin while keeping anything inoffensive at bay."

"So, what do we do?"

"Can you create shields inside of the barrier?"

Seungmin focused on the barrier and tried to create a shield. The necklace around his neck glowed brightly but nothing happened.   
"I don't think it's possible."  
He said while wiping off the beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Try creating shield from outside, then protrude towards the barrier."

He concentrates again, and his necklace glowed. This time, a teal colour, clear cuboid shield was formed in the air. Seungmin focused on the shield and it extended towards the barrier. It was extending fast until it met the barrier. It was slowed down rapidly but it was still penetrating, at a really slow pace. Then, it was repelled and vanished into the air as Seungmin lost his focus due to fatigue.

"Sigh, I don't think I can maintain it for a long time. It consumes too much vector."

"Can you project your shields?"

"You mean by throwing shields as if they were objects?"

Changbin nodded.

"I can try."  
Seungmin focused again and this time, multiple mini shields were formed in the air and flew at high speed towards the barrier. 

Changbin was observing the reaction of the barrier and he noticed that although most of the shields were repelled, some were managed to penetrate the barrier as far as they were just a few centimetres away from Hyunjin at the core, before they were consumed in the barrier. This means that they might be able to reach Hyunjin.

Seungmin stopped for a break to catch his breath.  
"Phew, it's a lot of work and the barrier recovers right after each penetration. I don't think we'll manage to break it down at this rate."

"Who said we're breaking it down?"

Seungmin looked at Changbin in confusion.

"We're going to snatch him out instead."  
Changbin lightly touch his ear piercing and a layer of vector covers his feet.  
"I need you to focus on penetrating the barrier at a spot, but make sure to project a few at different places so that the barrier won't just intensify its defence at that spot. Meanwhile, I'll try to sprint through that spot as the barrier was split by your shields. You get me?"

"Y-yeah. Let's try."

Seungmin started projecting the mini shields accordingly to Changbin's plan. And as soon as there was an opening in the barrier caused by Seungmin's focused attacks, Changbin sprint towards it. He jumped from the floor and within seconds, he was already half way into the barrier.

"Changbin!"

The barrier suddenly closed in quickly at where Changbin was and he quickly transferred the vector from his feet to his arms before he was encountered with a strong frontal repel by the barrier. He was shot back from the barrier and landed safely on his back as he transferred the vector from his arms to his back.

"Are you alright?"  
Seungmin rushed to help Changbin up.

"Yeah, I'm fine."  
He brushed off the dust on himself then looked at the barrier again.  
"Sigh, I was so close..."

"Can you enveloped your whole body in vector? Then I can keep on projecting shields without fearing of hurting you."

"I can't. My limit was the area of a part of my body. The furthest I tried before was from my head to my shoulder. That's it. Sometimes, I really feel the limitation of AV. Although AV is a stronger vector, CV allows a better coverage."

"Well, unless you have both, like what Hyunjin's doing now..."

Both of them were at their wit's end when a commotion from outside was heard. They looked out from the balcony to find their friends were already fighting the ghouls. Gunshots were fired, arrows filled the sky, the slashing sounds of the katana accompanied by the screeching sound of the ghouls.

"What now? Why are they fighting suddenly?"  
Changbin shouted in anger when one of the elites turned to their direction and approached them in full speed.

"Fuck-"

Bang!

Before Changbin and Seungmin can process any information, the elite that was approaching them was thrown to the ground, by... another elite? The fights stopped at the incident.

"Hey, are you guys alright up there?"  
It was Kallor yelling from the ground. He had arrived to aid them, along with Ryke and some other guys that they don't recognise. 

"Hey, Kallor, we're still alive!"  
Changbin shouted back.

"Good! Stay there!"

The elite that has just saved them was holding onto the balcony rail. The elite suddenly changed to the human form. He has dark brown hair and distinct facial features.

The two widened their eyes in shock as the elite-human boy turned around and was looking at them now. He then jumped over the balcony and entered the room.

"You guys alright?"  
The boy spoke.

"Y-yea...Y-you are a ghoul?"

"... ..."

"Y-you speak our language?"

The boy ignored Changbin as he walked closer to Hyunjin and inspected the barrier. He raised his hand that was covered with a energy similar to vector, and touched the barrier. The weird thing is, it did not repel his hand. The duo couldn't believe that the barrier that had been repelling them all this time did not repel this elite ghoul.

"What are-"

Fizzz-

Before Seungmin can finish the sentence, the boy was already inside the barrier. They watched in nervous as the boy reached Hyunjin at the core. He placed a hand on Hyunjin's forehead and bent down to whisper, "It's alright now, child. I'll keep you safe." His voice sounded calm, soft but clear.

The barrier started to diminish towards the centre until all the pure energy flowed back into Hyunjin. The boy then held Hyunjin in his arms as they landed on the floor gently.

"H-how did you do that?"  
Seungmin asked and moved towards them but stopped in place when the boy glared at him with glowing red eyes.  
"H-he's our friend."

"He's always been one of us."  
The boy growled.

"What?"  
Seungmin can't believe that his best friend was affiliated with the elite ghouls.  
"Wait!"

The boy carried Hyunjin and jumped off the balcony in a swift movement. They ran downstairs in anger and confusion at this bizarre situation before rejoining the others outside.

"What the heck is going on! This guy-"

"Calm down, Sky. He's one of us. Meet Q from The Boyz, the organisation that takes over the authority from Oneus."  
Kallor explained before he introduced the remaining members of The Boyz to the group, while they greeted back in shocked.

"The Boyz? B-but he's a ghoul!"  
Changbin can't understand anything from this point onwards.

"Sigh, indeed. In fact, they're all elite ghouls."  
Now everyone except Oneus and The Boyz were gaping at Kallor's explanation. 

"You m-mean Oneus are also-"

"Nah, we're not. Just The Boyz."

The Boyz transformed into their ghoul form right after Xion finished talking. Now, there were 11 elite ghouls standing among them.

"Oh, great! So, what other secrets do Valkyrie have? Mind explaining, Kallor?"  
Minho was getting fed up with this ridiculous turn of events. 

There were dead ghouls lying on the fighting ground, some ghouls were gathered on the opposite of them, and now thanks to the newly arrived 11 elite ghouls, the fighting was momentarily ceased and Hyunjin was safe, hence, this place wouldn't be attracting more ghouls.

"Is everything normal with the child?"  
Sangyeon, the leader of The Boyz approached Q, who was still holding the unconscious Hyunjin.

"Yes, but he's heating up. Might be due to the sudden retraction of the immense energy."

"Poor child. He can escape from the hell but he can never escape from the past."  
Jacob, a boy with dark blonde hair, touched Hyunjin's face with his icy cold hands. The temperature of Hyunjin's heating body dropped. He removed his hands when his temperature fell back to the normal human body temperature.

Screech! Screech! Hisss!

"Oneugh! Ug kuys axalo floaxakick zo plemiso!"   
(Enough! You guys are breaking the promise!)  
One of the elites from the opposite shouted in anger, other ghouls were enraged under his aura.  
"Whed daxalo ug kuys whido sust pit woaxapen blem us? Alo ug fotlaxayick us, kheurs!"  
(How dare you guys hide such a weapon from us? Are you betraying us, ghouls!)

Screech! Hisss! Screech!

"Alo ug up diiet? Wo axalo zo eno he fleudd doaxaco te zo kheurs. Act, zis STIRD, dis eno eb us." (Are you an idiot? We are the one who brought peace to the ghouls. And, this CHILD, is one of us.)  
Sangyeon approached the angered elite and gestured towards Hyunjin.  
"Pum'rr sottro zicks wholo. Roaxavo um zo ethol kheurs."  
(I'll settle things here. Leave with the other ghouls.)

Instead of backing off, the elite stepped forward, challenging Sangyeon, who did not moved back as well while his eyes glowed in dark red as he emitted a frightening aura that forced the other ghouls retreated even further away from them.

"Pe jet vaxako vo lopoaxat."  
(Do not make me repeat.)

The elite took a step back but suddenly charged forward towards Sangyeon who was still standing still. Before the elite can touch Sangyeon, 

Slash! Thud!

The body of the elite dropped to the ground. Dark greyish liquid was oozing from the neck of the elite that was now, without a head. 

"Haxat pit waxacho eb timo."  
(What a waste of time.)  
Juyeon, a tall, muscular build, with dark raven hair elite, spoke in a deep voice. He had beheaded the elite that had tried to harm Sangyeon. He coldly glanced over the group of the remaining ghouls, which were also included another elite and some nobles.

The ghouls watched in fear as they realised that the newly arrived elites were stronger and were out of their league. The humans, other than Oneus, were shocked too as they were not familiar with this level of raw brutality.

"Pum'rr taxako vupp roaxavo zon."  
(I'll take my leave then.)  
The elite that had first talked to them earlier gave a slight nod to Sangyeon before departing in a loud whistle.

The remaining ghouls were oppressed by the daunting aura from Juyeon. With their only elite had left from their side, they retreated further away from them before escaping from the suffocating air. The place resumed to its original peace. The Boyz transformed back to their human form and the intimidating dark aura dissipated from the air. 

"Erm, thank you for your help. So, what's all this about? You told us ghouls are dangerous but now they're governing Valkyrie? Do you mind explaining the situation to us now?"  
Bang Chan thanked The Boyz and Oneus before confronting Kallor.

"We're dangerous. But so are you, humans. The most important thing is we share the same vision."  
Sangyeon approached Q with Juyeon trailing behind him. He put on a silver bracelet on Hyunjin's wrist and caressed his cheek before speaking to Q,  
"This should keep him undercover. Take him back to HQ. Make sure you guys aren't being followed."

Q nodded and left with Hyunjin, along with the other 9 members guarding over them, leaving only Sangyeon behind.

"You can't just take him away-"  
Seungmin really can't believe that everyone just let The Boyz took control of everything despite of them being the elite ghouls.

"It's alright, Seungmin."

Everyone was tensed at Kallor's addressing of Seungmin's real name. _Did their cover got exposed?_

"You can't expect us to be fooled by your alias, can you?"  
Kallor continued and the Stray Kids were holding onto their weapons, ready to fight or flight at anytime.

"Relax, guys."  
Kallor approached Bang Chan and touched the GLOCK 22 in his hand and said,   
"I was the one who gave your father this one."

Bang Chan stared at him.  
"You know my father?"

"Of course. I trained with him at the academy. And in fact, most of the people over here know about some of you or your parents but you might have forgotten about us."

Sangyeon stood beside Kallor now and scanned Stray Kids but stopped at Seungmin.  
"You were close with that child but, I have met him since he was a baby. Hyunjin found us again at the age of 5. Then, we lost contact with him as if he no longer existing in this world. Until tonight, I feel his presence again when the seal on him was momentarily released just now."

"No way..."

"I believe he has lost all his memory before he was 6. Q had told me that he had detected hints of his memory being tampered. It's getting messier with each day, that one day, he might not have any real memory left."

"B-but he was alright remembering about things after 6-"

"Really? About everything?"

Seungmin was stunned. His father had warned him that once they had passed 19, the critical year, something will happens to Hyunjin. But he had always thought that his father was just scaring them with folktales. He has wondered why Hyunjin has never talked about the Desmond's incident, but he had reasoned that it was his defence mechanism that decided to bury that part of the memory. But he never asked about Yeji or anyone else they had known before ever since they had arrived at Valkyrie. He had thought that maybe it was a frantic day and they have no spare time to think about other stuff. Then, he remembered Hyunjin was playing with the others, blending in so well with the Valkyrie society, as if he has been living here all these time. What if Sangyeon was right about this? Will Hyunjin's memory be altered completely? But it's only been one day.

"You don't have to trust me now. But I'd like you to keep in mind about this. You might have known in your heart that what I've just said has some truths in it. Since, you've also doubted about his lost memory, haven't you?"

Seungmin froze. Yes, he had. He is still looking for answers now. He knew about something that had happened 15 years ago. He should have forgotten about it but he can't. At least, he should remember it for Hyunjin. A person's face came into his mind, and the fear subsided from Seungmin's face, only to be replaced by determination.

"If it's about Hyunjin from 15 years ago, can I talk with you in private? I might have something important that you'd like to know, and you might know something that I'd like to know, Sangyeon."

The whole group tensed at their conversation. 15 years ago was the traumatic apocalypse war they had. They have no idea why this war has something to do with a boy's past.

"Sure, let's have a chat."

REVEAL Arc TBC...

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: This should have been published on yesterday but I couldn't finish it as I was watching the live CB of Stray Kids. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and their CB as well. Stay tuned.  
  
  



	10. The Vanished Child

20 years ago…

**“…The Valkyrie Island has been hit by the roughest storm that we have ever witnessed yesterday. With the storm still ongoing without any sign of subsiding, all tourists and passengers were stranded on the island as no ships or flights were able to depart in such weather…”**

A toddler was playing his toys on the floor in the living room as his mother listened to the news while cooking.

Beep! Click!

“Oh, dear, you came back early today. Are you hungry? I still need another 15 minutes for the food to be ready to serve- “

The husband kissed the wife on her cheek before kneeling down at the toddler’s side.  
“Look at our baby, he’s growing up a little too fast, isn’t it?”  
He brushed the toddler’s nose bridge with a finger before picking him up in his arms.

“Look who’s talking. Of course you’ll see him growing fast when you didn’t’ get to see him every day.”  
The wife walked towards them and caressed the toddler’s head.  
“I bet your father wouldn’t recognise you three days later as he’s been busy dating with his job. Aren’t mummy right, Channie?”

**“…The storm is expected to turn northeastwardly from the Forest of Caligo…Rainy and breezy weather is expected through Wednesday as winds will gust to around 25-30 mph at times…”**

The husband gave a sad smile to his wife as he felt guilty to his wife’s complaint. But he still told her the worst news regardless.  
“Sigh, I’m sorry but I’ll be leaving tonight.”

“Huh? What do you mean? Leaving to where?”

“There’s some unusual incident going on since yesterday.”

“Why must it be you?”

“Cause it, it’s regarded as a special case. My team is gonna be in charge for this one. I was assigned as the leader just now…”

The wife lost her smile that has been on her face since her husband came home just a moment ago. The husband patted her shoulder to comfort her. She looked at her husband then to the toddler before asking in a trembling voice, “For how long? To where?”

**“…2-4 feet of storm surge is expected as the flow turns southeasterly…Residents have been warned of a flood and were advised to stay alert, ready to evacuate anytime until further notice…That’s your weather forecast, thanks for watching! I’m Lincoln, now back to…”**

The husband turned his head to the television as other news were continued being reported.  
“The island, Valkyrie. It might takes a little longer than usual depending on how the investigation goes.”

“Are you crazy?!”  
The toddler froze, shocked by his mother’s loud tone. She recollected herself, stroked the toddler’s back before speaking in a softer voice,  
“That place is stormy right now. How’re you getting there- “

“We’re going in by the military aircrafts.”

“Military? Why the government? Is it something that serious to involve the military- “

“Stop. Please, honey. It’s just part of my work. I used to work with the military in past cases too. This time they’re just helping us to get pass the storm. Nothing to worry about.”

“Is it something I shouldn’t know?”

“Sigh. I dunno. All we know is that the higher ups want us to check on an unusual phenomenon on that island. In particular, the storm. That’s why, I need to investigate more to know.”  
He hugged his wife and his son while watching at the screen that was still displaying the ongoing news. Deep down in his heart, he knew that this case was not that simple as the investigation team was formed by the military force. With this highly confidential motion to investigate such a small island, there were only two possible explanation: 1. new invention(s) were successfully created secretly; 2. underground lab experimentation had gone wrong. Of course, it might as well ended with just a new storm being discovered on Earth.

2 months later…

The dispatched investigation team returned with the official report of the unusual storm. Their findings were not related to the military. Rather, it was reported as an unusual weather change that resulted in that storm that had lasted for a week. The team was disbanded and each member was offered with a promotion for their effort. Only 3 of them took the opportunity while the rest quitted their jobs. Although the case seemed unusually common, given the circumstances, no one questioned about the report of the findings. But the insiders were wondering why the members would gave up on their promotion, and even more ridiculously, left their current posts. 

5 years later…

A dark hair boy was running on a wide field in a night full of stars. He increased his pace as the girl chased after him.

“Hyunjin! Slow down!”

“Hehe~ Faster, run faster, Yeji! We’re gonna be late for the meteor showers!”  
The boy continued running without any sign of slowing down for the huffing sister behind him. His hair was dancing up and down as he dashed through the long grass.

“Woah! Look, Yeji! It’s started!”  
He stopped at the top of the hill, under a tree, as the meteor showered from the sky.  
“Let’s make a wish! They said our wish will be granted if it’s made under a shooting star.”  
The boy clasped his hands together and closed his eyes.

The sister looked at the boy in silent before following his gestures to make a wish.  
“Sigh, yeah, let’s make a wish.”

The two children had their eyes closed with a smile on their faces. There was a warm breeze blowing at them, the night was peaceful.

The boy opened his eyes to find a man, a rather tall and handsome one, with long dark brown hair, wearing a traditional robe, and was standing in front of him. The man smiled at him before gesturing him to keep quiet. He turned to Yeji to find her still making her wish with her eyes closed. He turned back to the man and nodded. The man extended a hand towards the boy and smiled again. The boy grabbed the hand and followed the stranger towards the woods.

They stopped right in front of the woods before the man squatted down in front of the boy.  
“Aren’t you scared?”

“Should I?”  
The boy asked while he was still holding the stranger’s hand.

The man smiled at his answer.  
“Boy, you should be more careful. In this world, not everyone will ask you to follow them without motives.”

“Hmm, will you harm me then?”

“What? No.”

“Okie. Then, are you an angel?”

“W-what? Do you believe in angels?”

“Of course. I was wishing to meet my mummy and daddy. And when I opened my eyes, you’re here! Yeji will get her little angel as well, right?”

The man looked at the boy in disbelief. He had no idea that this child can be this innocent, no, it was naivety. He looked at the boy again.  
“Not exactly an angel but I can bring you to your family. But you have to promise me not to tell anyone else about meeting me or them tonight. Can you promise me that?”

The boy looked at him with his head hanging sideway before nodding.  
“Sure! Let’s hook our pinkies and stamp it!”

The man was flustered for a second before smiling again. They hooked their pinkies that night before disappearing into the woods together.

“Hyunjin! Hyunjin! Where’re you! Yah! It’s not funny! Come out now!”  
Yeji couldn’t find her brother anyway when she opened her eyes. She had been running frantically around the hill, looking for Hyunjin. Then, she saw the boy holding the hand of a stranger in front of the woods.  
“Hyunjin!”  
She ran over to them as they glanced over.  
“Yah! How can you run off like that! You should’ve told me when you’re leaving. W-who’s this?”

“He’s my fam-f-friend! Yeji, I had fun with him just now!”  
The boy beamed brightly at her while being secretly happy for keeping his promise with that man.

“W-what do you mean? Come here- “

The man gave a short laugh before turning to her direction.  
“He is unharmed, isn’t he? Relax, girl. We’re just playing around the woods a moment ago.”

Yeji stumbled backwards.  
“You just followed a stranger?”  
Her question was directed at Hyunjin.

“Yea.”

Yeji’s eyes were widened.  
“No way! Mum said never to follow or talk to any stranger!”

“But he is a good friend of mine! It’s okay, Yeji. You’re still my best sister. It’s just that, now I have another friend! You’ll come to like him too if we play together, I’m sure.”

“I’m calling dad! This stranger is weird and you’re acting weird now! You shouldn’t follow a stranger, you silly!”  
Yeji screamed and started to run off but she was grabbed by Hyunjin at the arm.

“Please, Yeji. He is a good person…Please don’t tell d-dad…”

… …

Yeji looked at the boy then to the man, then back to the boy. At least she knew that the man did not try to harm Hyunjin, and decided to trust him for now.  
“Sigh, alright. I won’t. But never ever run off without telling me again, I was so shocked. Got it?”

“Okie. I’m sorry, won’t do it again!”

“Looks like he is being loved over here as well. I’m glad.”  
The man touched both of their heads before kneeling in front of the boy. He took out a necklace and hung it around the boy’s neck. It was a thin silver necklace with only a single bead as the ornament.  
“Hyunjin, remember to call whenever you need me through this necklace. Alright?”

Hyunjin held the bead in his hand and looked at it. He looked back up to the man before nodding.

“Will you visit me again?”

The man stood up and patted the boy’s head.  
“I hope so. But it might be a little difficult.”

“Why?”

“Hmm, I can’t really explain it but you’ll know when you’re older.”

“Okie. I’m gonna miss you then.”

The boy hugged the man.  
“I think I’ll miss you, Uncle Q.”

The man picked him up and hugged him back.  
“Me too. I will visit you again. I promise.”

“Yeji! Hyunjin!”

There were someone calling their names in distant.

“Gasp, you need to go! It’s our dad!”  
Yeji screamed at them.

The man put Hyunjin down before turning to Yeji.  
“Thank you for tonight, little lady. Please take good care of him.”  
Yeji nodded. He then turned back to the boy.  
“This is goodbye then. Until next time, child.”  
The man patted the boy one last time before disappearing into the woods.

“Bye, uncle…”

The necklace vanished as well when their father reached them.

“Hey, you two! Get into the house, now! It’s late already.”

“Yes, father…”

In the woods…

The stranger was approached by another tall guy, who was dressed in a black traditional robe.

“So, that’s the lost child you’ve been stalking for a while now?”

“He is.”

“Do you think he will return to our side?”

Q turned towards that guy who was now standing right in front of him.  
“Maybe, one day. For now, I think he is better off staying here with his family.”

“Family? Are you sure they like him because of who he is **or** because of what he is?”

Q tensed at that guy’s words and hissed,  
“Do not degrade that child.”  
His expression was then soften and replaced by doubts.  
“At least I hope that he will be able to live a normal life over here. But if he was ever harmed, I’ll be the one to bring him back.”

Q left the guy and disappeared into the woods before he was able to hear what the guy had said.  
“Sigh, your sister will definitely cause a havoc if she knew her child was here all along…”

3 months later…

Hyunjin was running away from a room. His clothes were drenched in sweats, his hair was sticking to his face as he run. As he turned to a corner, he bumped into a stranger who grabbed him by his shoulders.  
“Let me go! Let me-“

“Oh, it’s you Mr Kim. I’m glad you’re here just in time to catch that brat tryin’ to escape.”  
The lab assistant greeted Mr Kim.

Mr Kim clenched his fingers until his nails sank deep into Hyunjin’s shoulders. They boy was quiet in fear as streams of tears flowed down his cheeks. Mr Kim stared at him for a good minute before talking,  
“Boy, you better behave. Or else, I don’t even know what’s gonna happen to a naughty boy. Got it?”

… …

“I said, do you get it!”

He shook the boy violently. The boy gave a whimper before nodding his head.  
“Well, that will do. Now,”  
He gestured to the two lab assistants in white, who had been standing not far away from them after giving a long chase after the boy. The assistants approached them before Mr Kim released Hyunjin.  
“Take him back to the lab.”

A little boy was running around the corridor when he was stopped by another older boy.  
“Woojin, I heard Hyunjin’s scream. We need to find him-“

“Seungmin! Wait, I think we should’ve just stayed in the guest room.”

“No way! I think Hyunjin needs our help. I’ll go alone if you’re not coming.”

“Wait”

“What now?”

“I think, I saw a few people running through the left wing. Hyunjin might be there.”  
Woojin pointed at an opposite direction from where Hyunjin was.

“Sigh, should’ve told me earlier. Let’s go!”

The two boys ran towards the left wing of the mansion, away from Hyunjin.  
Woojin felt anxious, he started to run through the possible scenario when Seungmin found out that Hyunjin wasn’t there. He was planning the next step to divert Seungmin’s attention when he recalled his father’s order,  
 _“Woojin, we’re going to do something really important with Hyunjin’s help. Make sure no one’s disturbing my work with the professor. Especially that nosy friend of yours. Got it?”  
_ He looked at his running friend and thought to himself,  
 _“I’m sorry, Seungmin.”_

Hyunjin was strapped on the hard cold metal block before his bodies were attached with cables and tubes, one after one, until there was hardly any of his body parts were visible in sight.  
“P-pleasee, d-dad-dyy- sob- do-ont d-sob Hy-hyunjin ss-scared- sob”

“Shhh. Hyunjin, I will make it quick, alright? It’ll end before you even realise it.”

Vrrr- His father started the machine, liquids started to flow towards Hyunjin.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Daddy! Open the door! I’m telling mum! Let Hyunjin out now!”  
Yeji was wailing outside of the underground lab.

“Shut up! I told you Hyunjin is sick. I’m going to cure him. Now get your ass out of here or be quiet!”  
Her father shouted back.

“No! Daddy, you lied- sob- H-how can you lied about Hyunjin’s illness-sob”

The father gave a nod to Mr Kim, who started another machine that was sending electrical impulses via the cables.

Vrrr! Zzzt…

“Arghh! It hurts! Stop! Please! Ah! Uncle Q! Help! Please! Ahhhh…”

Yeji continued banging at the door and yelling. But none of the adults cared to listen to the children’s plead. The wailing and screaming lasted for another hour before Hyunjin was knocked out by the pain while Yeji had lost her voice from the yelling and crying.

Blip!

“Professor Hwang, I think we succeeded this time. Seems like we manage to enforce the restriction on the source. We can freely control and use the energy source now. Congratulation!”

Mr Kim showed the results that were displaying on the tablet to the father.

**[Detection – Complete**

**Marking – Complete**

**Confinement – Complete**

**Manipulation – Complete**

**Alteration – Complete**

**Restriction – Complete**

**Seal – Complete**

**Device ready to be removed]**

The father patted Mr Kim’s shoulder and smile.  
“It’s thanks to you too for breaking down the protective barrier that’s set over the source. Without your technology, we won’t be able to run the experiments and programs on him. Now we have placed the seal over him, he shouldn’t be discoverable by any forms of tracking device.”

“What should we do with this?”  
Mr Kim was holding onto a silver necklace with a single bead in his hand.

“Tsk. Destroy it. If it’s not because of this, our works would have been much easier. What a nuisance.”

“Well, if you don’t mind, Professor, can I keep it?”

The father looked at him in doubt.  
“Why? Do you need it for something else?”

A smug was seen on Mr Kim’s face before he spoke,  
“As a businessman, I wouldn’t miss any opportunity, especially one this grand. What do you think they will offer me when they saw this necklace?”

“Y-you wanna meet the g-ghouls?”

“Professor, it’s only normal for one to fear the unknown. But businessman cares nothing else but profit. I won’t mention anything about our precious source. I’ll just mislead them with this necklace while earning something else.”

“May I know what are you up to?”

“That, you’ll know very soon.”

“Gulp. W-well. As long as you don’t leak any info-“

“Professor, I’ve been dealing with dangerous deals all the time. Have some faith in me.”

“S-sure.”

“Now, let’s celebrate.”  
Mr Kim pocketed the necklace before retrieving a champagne and two glasses designed for sparkling wine.

Clink!

They drank their success in the midst of the buzzing machines. 

In the woods…

Five hooded men were conducting a search on the tracking globes.

“How’s it?”

Q asked the five who were working on searching Hyunjin.

“I’m sorry. We still couldn’t find him.”  
One of them replied.

“The last sign of him was in coordinate (37.539619, 127.009676)…”  
Another one read the map on his globe.

“And no live signal was received ever since?”

“That’s correct.”

“Tell Sangyeon that I’ll check the last location first. Send backups to search around other areas, especially where he used to live.”

“But I thought they moved-“

“They’re constantly moving, as if they know we’re watching him. Check out their old places to get some clues to his missing.”

“I’m on it.”

_Hwang Nam Joo, if anything happened to Hyunjin, I swear you’ll ended up begging me for your death._  
Q swore in his heart.

At location 37.539619, 127.009676…

Q was puzzled by the location. It was an abandoned warehouse, and there was someone waiting for him. He was ready to strike when the man turned to him and spoke.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”  
The man greeted Q.

“Who are you?”

“The person who knows a bit about the missing child?”

Q tensed at his words and hissed.  
“What have you done to him?”

“Well, it’s not what I have done to him, rather, it’s what I have seen.”  
The man corrected Q.

Gasp! Q narrowed his eyes at the necklace hanging from the man’s hand.  
“How dare you-“

“I found it in this warehouse. And I thought someone might return to this place to find it. Seeing your reaction, you must have been looking for that child.”  
The man handed over the necklace to Q while Q being confused at the intention of this man.  
“I’m Mr Kim by the way. A businessman.”

“Businessman? So you’re hoping for something in return?”

“Hahaha, you’re very direct, aren’t you? But it’s a yes and no.”

“… …”

“I have enemies. And apparently, my enemies were involved with the missing child.”

“Who are they?”

“I saw a group of enforcers who had kidnapped that child two days ago. And I managed to see the logo on their badge. It was the military…”

Q was staring at him, looking for hints of lies or deception. But he failed to detect any of them.  
“So, you’re saying a child was kidnapped by the government? In this warehouse?”

“Well, who knows? That’s what I saw. I have no idea about anything before or after. Then, I found this necklace laying in that dirt. I pic-“

“Why didn’t you report the case?”

“What? I’m scared. I’d be going against the military, the government! I’m a businessman, I don’t make profit-losing deals. I’d have lost my life if I reported it.”

“How convenient of you to use such low excuse.”

“Eh-hem. Mind your words, kid. Without this lowly human like me, you still wouldn’t know about anything regarding that child. I don’t need anything else except to celebrate when you destroyed our common enemies.”

“How quick for you to assume that we’re on the same side. Why do you think I will trust you?”

“Well, it’s completely up to you, of course. But I’m just telling you what I’ve seen. If you’re able to find more clues by yourself, then, go ahead. Now, excuse me.”  
Mr Kim left the warehouse and a smirk was on his face as he turned his head to look at the warehouse before leaving for real. Deep down, he knew he has successfully planted doubts in that ghoul.

Q inspected the necklace and found it to be completely useless as the bead has cracked to the core. He had a long thought as he looked at Mr Kim who had entered his car and left the location.

_Can he be trusted? Or is this a trap? The military…they are not someone to play such tricks… I think it’s time to meet my old friend, Professor Bang…_

REVAL Arc TBC…

A/N: This is the filler chapter regarding Hyunjin’s lost memory incident during his childhood. And also how those characters in the older generation met with each other.


End file.
